


Can We Do the Impossible?

by Fangirl_fanatic



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, F/F, Kinda, Sickfic, Slow Burn, Tattoo Artist Christen Press, also kind, punk!christen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21982537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl_fanatic/pseuds/Fangirl_fanatic
Summary: Christen is fine with how everything turned out. Sure, soccer had been the love of her life but she’s found a new love in being a piercer and tattoo artist. But when her old college teammate, Kelley, drags a possible new beginning into her life in the form of Tobin Heath, well, who is Christen to ignore fate.
Relationships: Kelley O'Hara/Emily Sonnett, Tobin Heath/Christen Press
Comments: 151
Kudos: 480





	1. The One in Which Kelley is Lucky Christen Doesn’t Kill Her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just couldn’t get the idea of punk!christen out of my head and it led to this. There are minor descriptions of ear piercing in here, nothing too graphic but read at your own risk. Also, a few creative liberties were taken.

"Pressi, are you busy right now?" Is the greeting that leaves Kelley's mouth in her first phone call to Christen in almost two months. She'd be offended but honestly, forgetting to keep in touch is such a Kelley thing to do that Christen is used to it. 

"I'm at work," Christen answers in exasperation, "like I am every Wednesday night."

"Perfect! Just what I like to hear!" Kelley all but squeals through the phone in excitement, barreling on through the conversation. "I'm in town — just got in a couple hours ago, I swear I was planning on seeing you anyways — and I have a friend here who needs a piercing ASAP. And I thought, who better than my dear friend Christen Press?"

Christen chuckles at Kelley's rambling and briefly wonders whether she's drunk before realizing that this is just Kelley's regular personality. She opens her mouth to respond but is cut off by Kelley continuing to talk. "So what do you say, old pal? Got any free appointment slots?"

"Kel, how many times have I told you that the shop is purely a walk-in only type of place, especially for piercings?"

"Hundreds of times but I just like to make sure, ya know?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Christen laughs and shakes her head at her old friend's antics. "When can I expect you in?"

"Umm," Kelley says right as she hears a loud yell echo through the other side of the receiver that is suspiciously similar to the one that just came from right outside her shop. 

"Where are you right now?" Christen pinches the bridge of her nose, glad nobody can see her trying to hide a smile. 

"Yeah so, about that, we're already outside the shop," Kelley admits guiltily. 

"Then what, exactly, was the point of you calling me?"

"You're totally right! I'll hang up now!" Kelley says in a way that Christen knows she's definitely being teased. 

"Kel, you know that's not—" Christen cuts herself off when she hears the dial tone and sighs, setting her phone done and watching the door expectantly. Sure enough, Kelley comes bouncing in not even a minute later, two other women hot on her heels. 

"You're lucky I love you," Christen warns right before Kelley practically jumps into her arms, dragging her into an enthusiastic hug. 

"That I am, Pressi," Kelley says as she pulls away, turning to sweep her arm towards the two people standing behind her. "This is Emily, my girlfriend, and Tobin, a piercing-virgin."

Christen makes eye contact with Tobin first, who absolutely takes her breath away as soon as they meet eyes. She's gorgeous and tan and muscular in all the right places. Christen has to remind herself to be professional and quickly looks away towards Emily, who is grinning in an almost identical way to Kelley. Boy, she thinks, these two must be quite the pair. 

"I assume I'm gonna be doing you?" Christen addresses, internally cringing at her phrasing even as Tobin doesn't blink. 

"Yeah," she says, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly and god, it takes all of Christen's willpower to not melt right into the floor at her voice. "Kel said that this was the best place to come to."

"I've gotten all my piercings from Christen, she's a piercing genius!" Kelley raves, hopping up and down in excitement as Christen smirks. Tobin scoffs disbelieving at Kelley, rolling her eyes. 

"Wow, your lobe piercings," Tobin says in a slightly deeper voice, clearly being sarcastic and mocking Kelley, "what a big deal."

"Hey! That's not all I've had pierced!" Kelley says indignantly and Tobin clearly doesn't believe her. 

"Oh yeah, for sure. What else could you possibly have pierced?" Tobin challenges and Kelley blushes like she forgot where this was gonna lead. 

Christen fake coughs and then coughs out, "her nipples," before adding two more coughs at the end to really sell it. Tobin lights up like she's just discovered a gold mine of information — which Christen is sure she has — and Kelley fake glares at her. Emily, for her part, doesn't look all too surprised. 

"No way!" Tobin laughs, clapping her hands together like a child. "When did this happen."

Kelley stays silent but Christen is definitely not letting her get out of this one. "It was my first week at my old shop, I had just finally gotten my license to pierce and finished going through all of the training when Kelley comes in, only slightly drunk, asking for double nipple piercings on both boobs," Christen starts and Tobin is already laughing her ass off. 

"Mind you, we were already best friends from college so I one hundred percent knew what I was doing when I walked in," Kelley adds, blushing a fair amount even as she jokes around about it. 

"Okay, wait a second!" Tobin puts her hands up, face bright red from laughing so hard. "Double nipple piercings?" she asks, clearly confused on how that works. 

"Yeah, so basically what that means is you get one on each peak," Christen explains, enjoying the grimaces of pain that Tobin and Emily both give, "and then the other one goes deeper under the nipple to create a double piercing."

"There's no way you actually got that done!" Tobin insists, looking very uncomfortable with how painful the procedure sounds. 

"Well I was a little tipsy," Kelley defends and Christen nods. 

"This was also the first nipple piercing I'd ever given — let alone four in one sitting — but we got through it pretty okay," Christen says, thinking back to how anxious she had been at the time. 

"That's nuts, dude!" Tobin tells Christen and then turns to Kelley. "Do you still have them?"

"Yeah," Kelley says and Christen can see from a mile away where this is going, if the blush on Kelley's girlfriend's face is any sign, "but I only wear them on special occasions."

Kelley winks at Emily, who turns bright red, and Tobin looks between the pair with a look of disgust. "Okay, yeah, that's what I get for asking."

"Anyways," Christen adds in cheerfully, drawing the attention away from poor Emily, who kind of looks like a tomato at the moment, "what kind of piercing were you looking for, Tobin?"

"Which one hurts the most?" Kelley asks gleefully, the giant grin she was wearing when they walked in returning full force. Tobin visibly pales. 

"Don't answer that," Tobin says quickly, glaring at Kelley, "I just want my lobes done."

Christen looks between the pair with a smirk, nodding. "Okay, if you're sure..."

"I definitely am."

"Come on, Tobs, don't you want something cool, like the lip ring Christen has," Kelley teases and Christen runs her tongue over the piercing gently. It had been her first facial piercing out of three, followed by the double studs on the left side of her nose. 

"It's all fun and games until it gets ripped out in the middle of a game," Tobin challenges but Kelley just rolls her eyes. 

"Whatever, wimp, don't you at least want a cool ear piercing?"

"Lobes are cool enough for me," Tobin insists, looking towards Christen for help, who nods her encouragement. 

"Exactly, and we have some very cool jewelry to pick from." Christen winks after the word cool and doesn't take the time to think about what Tobin's blush means. "Come over to the counter and we'll have a look."

The three women follow Christen over to the glass display as she goes around behind it and takes out all the jewelry they have for lobe piercings. The collection is quite extensive and it spans a large portion of the glass counter once it has all been laid out. 

"We don't pierce with any type of ringed jewelry due to the extra difficulty it adds when healing. Once your ears are all healed up, though, feel free to switch to some nice hoops if you'd like." Christen pauses before grinning a little. "Though, if you're worried about your piercings being ripped out, hoops are not the right way to go."

Kelley laughs but the two other girls are too busy looking at all the jewelry to be actually paying attention to what Christen is saying. Tobin gives her a wide grin though even as her eyes scan all of the possible options. 

"You should definitely get those," Emily says, pointing out a large pair of black skulls near the end of the top row. Tobin shoves her slightly and laughs, continuing to look on. 

It takes a little while and some reassurances from Christen that they're not wasting her time — the shop is never really busy on a Wednesday night anyway — before Tobin decides on a pair of standard diamonds. They're simple and Emily groans about them being boring while Kelley nods her head in agreement but Tobin sticks with her decision. Christen has Tobin sign all the waivers and forms before they leave the counter. 

"Okay, go sit in the chair over there while I grab the supplies." Christen points to her right where the two piercing chairs are after she finishes returning all the earrings to their appropriate spots. She grabs the earrings Tobin picked out from the supply in the back before going back out to the front to find Kelley filming Tobin as she sits in the chair. 

As soon as Christen walks out, Kelley turns the camera onto her with a big grin. "Shoutout to my old friend Christen Press for doing the piercings. Seriously guys, if you're in the Portland area, come out to Black Cat Studio for any type of piercing or tattoo. They're amazing!"

Kelley posts the video to her story even as Christen fondly rolls her eyes, sanitizing all of her equipment as she does so. Tobin is squirming around in her seat nervously and Christen raises a single eyebrow at her with a wry smile. "Do you want the teddy bear we use for the little kids?"

Tobin blushes but Emily and Kelley both nod excitedly and grab it from off the other piercing chair. They hand it to her together, thrusting the plushy into Tobin's hands even as she protests. To Christen's surprise, though, Tobin doesn't immediately set the toy down and instead holds it gently in her lap. She fiddles with its arms as Christen finishes cleaning everything and takes out two hollow-point needles. 

"This process is fairly simple, ok? Nothing to worry about at all. Just a quick one-and-done thing. You ready?" 

Tobin nods, her grip on the bear tightening ever-so-slightly. As she would do with any other client, Christen talks her through each step. She marks where both piercings will be and has Tobin check the placement to make sure she likes it before continuing. 

"We'll start with your left ear first, okay?" Christen checks in and Tobin nods as she wheels her station over to her left side. "All you're gonna feel is a quick pinch. Nothing too bad, but it'll likely feel a bit awkward. Are you ready?"

Tobin hugs the stuffed bear and both Kelley and Emily give her a thumbs-up as she nods anxiously. Christen continues after giving her a reassuring smile. "Okay, deep breath in. 1.. 2... 3... deep breath out."

As Tobin releases her breath, Christen quickly does the piercing. First pushing through the lobe with the needle and then quickly inserting the earring and screwing on the backing of it. Tobin, for her part, doesn't even look fazed. Her grip on the bear isn't even that tight and she's grinning at Emily, who has pulled out her phone for her turn at filming the event. 

"Do you need to take a break real quick or can we do the next one?"

"You can do the next one," Tobin grins at her and Christen really hopes her blush isn't that noticeable. 

"Perfect!" Christen wheels her station around to the other side of Tobin. "How are you feeling? Any lightheadedness or nausea?"

"Nope!" Tobin says with a dopey grin, "I feel great."

"Alright, same process here. Deep breath in. 1... 2... 3... and deep breath out. Good." Christen finishes the piercing easily, sanitizing it as she goes and leaning over to wipe away any excess blood from the previous piercing. She does the same on the new one and then pats Tobin on the shoulder. 

"See, not too bad!" Christen grins and Tobin smiles back, looking at her ears as she gets handed a mirror. 

"Thank you, that was amazing!"

"Amazing enough for you to want to get another one?" Kelley butts in and Tobin laughs, shaking her heads. 

"Maybe in a couple of years," Tobin says and Kelley cheers loudly. 

"Me and Pressi will be holding you to that," Kelley grins and Christen nods. She rings up the total cost and Tobin pays in cash. 

"Here's one twenty-five," Tobin says cheerfully, handing over the money as Emily admires her new piercings. Christen almost chokes at the amount of cash. 

"Tobin," Christen stares at the woman dumbly, doing some quick math in her head at the same time, "that's almost a one hundred and ten percent tip! I can't take that! Especially not for a simple lobe piercing."

"Yes you can," Tobin insists, "this experience was great. Plus, you had to deal with these two losers. Take it, you deserve it."

"I— thank you!" Christen says, hands shaking as she collects the money. To take her mind off the generosity that she just witnessed, Christen runs through her usual spiel of piercing aftercare. She recommends several cleaning options, reminds Tobin about washing her hands, and warns against tugging and pulling on the jewelry. Then, she hands Tobin the bag with her receipt and the standard complimentary bottle of piercing aftercare cleaner. 

"And," Christen adds after her whole speech, "if you ever do decide to get another piercing or want to try your hand at tattoos, here's my business card as well as the shop's info."

"Thanks," Tobin takes the bag and slips the business card into her pocket, giving Christen a wide grin. 

"As for you," Christen says, turning to Kelley, "a text would be nice before you surprise me with a new customer plus a girlfriend I didn't even know you had."

"Yeah, well..." Kelley says sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck before grinning, "we'll just have to see each other more often then."

"Yeah, I'd like that," Christen agrees, smiling softly at her goofy friend. 

"Well, there's a get-together Friday night at Tobin's place if you want to come. The others wouldn't mind, right guys?" Kelley asks, starting to buzz with excitement like she always does when making spontaneous plans. 

"No, of course not. We'd love to have you," Tobin says enthusiastically and nods her head rapidly. 

"Yeah! It's always good to have someone around that can put Kelley in her place," Emily teases even as she laces her fingers together with Kelley's, leaning into her side. 

"I don't know, Kel, I was hoping for something more low-key," Christen sighs. "Like a brunch or some other stereotypical thing millennials are supposed to enjoy."

"Come on, Chris! It'll be fun," Kelley begs, knowing how easy Christen can be convinced of things. "You'll get to meet a few of Tobin and Emily's teammates. It'll be totally chill, I promise. And, best of all, you get to hang with me!"

Christen hesitates but Kelley is pouting at her and Emily is smiling invitingly and even Tobin seems to be giving her her own version of puppy eyes. "Fine!" She agrees, already regretting her choice — but only a little — as all three women cheer happily. 

"I'll text you the details!" Kelley promises as she gives Christen a hug and the other two wave at her. As the trio leave the shop, Christen wonders what the hell she just got herself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Let me know if I made any mistakes during the piercing process, I’m not a professional piercer, I just have a lot of piercings. More chapters coming soon but for now, feel free to leave any feedback/comments you have. I’d love to hear what you think!


	2. The One in Which Christen Meets Too Many People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait, I hope y’all enjoy!

Christen doesn't check her phone until the next afternoon, exhausted from a consecutive late night and early morning shift. When she does, though, she immediately regrets it. She ends up scrolling through what must be at least a thousand new social media notifications, on both her personal account and the account she gets paid to run for the shop. After taking several minutes to figure out what the fuck is going on, Christen rolls her eyes. 

It's Kelley's fault. Of course it's Kelley's fault. Her and her — admittedly hot — friends brought quite a bit of attention to Christen and the shop after videoing what seems to be the entire piercing process done on Tobin's ears. Sure, the extra followers on her personal account is a little weird but maybe her boss with give her a raise for managing the shop's account so well. One can always hope, right?

Once Christen feels she has spent enough time acting like she hasn't noticed the changes to her social media, she clicks on the one new message. It's from Kelley, of course. The text is strangely concise and gives her Tobin's address and the time of the "get-together" before it ends. Honestly, Christen expected a lot more chaos to come from Kelley's side of this whole debacle and she's quite relieved to find that at least one part of her life is somewhat put-together. 

Still, Christen can't help but regret agreeing to go to this party. She won't know anybody their besides Kelley, for god's sake, and Christen has a sneaking suspicion that she'll be the only non-athlete in attendance. This was definitely a terrible idea, Christen decides as she flops down onto her couch with a sigh. It creaks beneath her weight and jumps slightly on the hardwood floor, solidifying her resentment for life at the moment. 

Not much changes within the next twenty-four hours, including Christen's inability to speak up when she doesn't want to do something. Which, predictably, means she ends up on Tobin's doorstep ten minutes past 6 o'clock hesitantly knocking the door of a place that is worth more Christen herself. This was a terrible idea.

The door swings open and instead of Kelley — or maybe Tobin — being behind it like she expected, there's a stranger staring at her. Christen opens her mouth to say something but before she can, the short-haired woman is turning around and yelling, "Tobin, you're neighbor is here to complain again!"

"Oh, I'm not—" The woman walks off before Christen can explain that she doesn't even live around here, leaving the door wide open as she stares after her. Tobin appears not more than ten seconds later. 

"Listen, I'm really sorry about the—" Tobin looks up and cuts herself off, Christen looking at her with poorly hidden amusement. "Oh! Christen, hey. Come on in, Kelley's around here somewhere. Kelley!"

Christen flinches as Tobin yells for her friend, who comes bounding up to them with a huge grin. Tobin closes the door behind them as Kelley throws her arms around Christen like she didn't just see her two days ago. "Pressi! I was starting to get worried you ditched me."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Christen says, shrugging as Kelley pulls away. "Some dude came into the shop right before closing looking to get a tattoo."

"Damn, that's rough. Was it at least easy?"

"Oh yeah, he just wanted a lightning bolt on his pec." Christen nods sarcastically as Kelley winces sympathetically. 

"On his pec?" Tobin cuts in, her jaw a little slacked as Christen nods. 

"Ew, man-boobs," Kelley says, wrinkling her nose as Christen snorts. 

"Yep, right across the nipple." The other two girls grimace as Christen vaguely gestures to where he wanted it. Sarcastically, Christen adds, "Highlight of my week."

"Worse than Kelley's nipple piercings?" Tobin asks mischievously, raising an eyebrow as Christen laughs. 

"Not nearly as bad." 

"Hey!" Kelley smacks Christen on the arm as she laughs but grins anyway. "Come on, I basically paid you to look at my boobs for an hour."

"First of all, I never asked to see your boobs. And second of all, giving somebody nipple piercings is the furthest thing from attractive." 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." Kelley throws up her hands as the other two women laugh at her expense. "Do you want to come meet the rest of the crew or not?"

That sobers Christen up as she fiddles with her hair, shifting her weight hesitantly before shrugging noncommittally. "If I must."

"Come on , they're gonna love you." Kelley grabs Christen's arm and drags her past the living room, through the sliding glass door, and into the backyard while Tobin follows after them with a small chuckle.

To Christen's relief, there's actually not that many people in the backyard. There's Emily and another blonde girl who Emily is trying to poke with a burnt stick that she presumably stuck in the fire pit on the patio — where else would she have gotten a still-smoking stick, Christen has no idea. The girl who originally opened the door for her is by the grill but she doesn't seem to be doing much other than bugging the woman actually manning the grill. And there's three girls standing in a circle watching Emily and the other blonde lady — occasionally calling out things in accents that Christen isn't sure are real. 

"Guys, the party has arrived!" Kelley calls out drawing the attention of all the people standing around, which forces Christen to hide a blush. "This is Christen, she's a friend from college. The girl that I was telling you about who did Tobin's piercings."

"I thought she was the neighbor chick?" The short-haired woman calls out, leaving her position by the grill to come bounding over to Christen much like Kelley does when she's excited. "Sorry for leaving you at the door, I thought you were one of Tobin's annoying neighbors. I'm Kling."

Christen laughs softly, shaking her head. "Nope, not a neighbor. It's nice to meet you, though."

"Right, well, the girl Em's attacking is Lindsey," Kelley interrupts, starting to point around at the other people. "Our grill extraordinaire — who I'm starting to suspect is only here for the food — is A.D. The three aussies over their in order from left to right are Ellie, Caitlin, and Hayley." 

"Umm, hi," Christen waves shyly at the women who are staring at her and before things can get awkward, A.D. turns around with a huge smile. 

"Perfect timing! Food's ready."

"Oh, thank god, I'm starving!" Emily says, dropping the stick she's holding — much to the visible relief of Lindsey. 

As they walk over to where A.D. is waving a spatula around as she points out food options, Kelley puts an arm around Christen, "Welcome to the chaos, kid."

Christen shoves Kelley off of her with an eye roll, "Trust me, they can't be any worse than you." She ignores Kelley's protests as Tobin snickers. "Also, I'm only a year younger than you, bozo."

"Schematics," Kelley says, waving her hand likes she's brushing aside what Christen just said. "I'm much more mature than you, though."

"Really?" Christen raises a single eyebrow and smirks, making the smile drop from Kelley's face as she turns to Tobin with a mischievous grin. "Tobin? Has Kelley ever told you about the time in college when we snuck onto the roof of the science building so she could spray paint—"

"Pressi, say one more word and I'm going to get on Yelp and leave you and you're shop a one star review."

"Hmm, that's what I thought." Christen smirks as Emily comes over to them, two plates in hand and a huge grin on her face. 

"You know, I'm very interested to hear how that story ends," Emily says, handing off one of the plates to Kelley, who thanks her for it while also shaking her head rapidly. 

"No you really don't."

"All I'm going to say is that it was to impress her—"

"I'll kill you."

"—chemistry TA, who had a boyfriend at the time."

"You can leave," Kelley deadpans as Emily and Tobin laugh hysterically with even Lindsey, who was listening in, letting out a small chuckle. 

"Tobs, Christen, do you guys want anything?" A.D. cuts in and Tobin nods, hurrying over to claim her food like she's scared the woman is going to throw it out. 

"Oh, yeah, thank you. Give me a second," Christen says politely, starting to undo the bottons of her jacket. "Kel, I'm going to leave my jacket over by the door, please don't let me forget it."

"I mean, we'll see considering how you just betrayed my trust."

"There are much worse stories I could have told and you know it. And it's not like I told them what you wrote." Christen smirks as Emily's head snaps up and towards her, eyes gleaming. They share a look and Christen knows she'll be telling that story later — despite the murderous look Kelley is giving her. "Kel, please, this jacket cost more than my daily salary."

"You and your poor-person salary," Kelley says and coming from anybody else, Christen would've punched the person but it's Kelley — who spent a year bumming around Christen's apartment when she couldn't afford rent by herself on her measly rookie salary. "I'll remind you, Chris, don't worry."

"Thank you," Christen says, relieved. After all, this is her only jacket and despite the fact that it's currently humid as fuck, Portland can get really chilly when it wants to. She tugs on the sleeves of her jacket, effectively pulling it off her overheating body and setting it down on the table near the sliding glass door. 

"Woah, dude, sick ink," one of the aussies say — Caitlin, definitely Caitlin, well, maybe Caitlin — and then suddenly all eyes are on her again. This time, though, Christen doesn't shy away from the attention, instead perking up with a huge grin. 

"Thanks! I designed this one myself," Christen says, gesturing to the full sleeve on her left arm. She's wearing a cropped tank-top which means a lot of the ink on her arms and collarbone are revealed — and, if somebody looks really close, the hint of a sunflower peek out from the tattoo across her ribs. 

"The whole thing?" Tobin's jaw is practically on the floor as her eyes trace the detailed pattern. 

"Pretty much, though I consulted some of my more experienced coworkers and Kelley, though she wasn't much help, for advice."

"Damn, wait to sell me short," Kelley says even though she's grinning at Christen proudly. 

"It's beautiful," Lindsey compliments and some of the girls murmur their agreement. 

"Thank you." The conversation naturally fizzles out as Christen grabs some food, mostly just grilled vegetable, and the others turn back to their conversations. When's she done tentatively filling her plate, she nervously takes a seat next to Tobin on one of the couches with Emily and Kelley curled up together in front of them. A.D. and Kling have joined the three Aussies and Lindsey in a circle and are talking loudly, the sound of their laughter traveling across the whole backyard. 

Christen's trying to not be awkward as Tobin turns to her. "Seriously, you're tattoos are amazing. I love the one on your collarbone."

Blushing, Christen absentmindedly traces the pattern of flowers near her shoulder and then she smirks. "Love it enough to consider getting one of your own?"

Tobin's eyes widen and Kelley laughs, nearly spitting her food everywhere. "Chris, don't scare poor Toby. I don't think she's quite ready to be introduced to tattoos yet."

"Rude," Tobin mumbles, crossing her arms but then she's grinning and turning back towards Christen. "How long did it take to design the full sleeve?"

"Creating the design was the easy part." Christen shakes her head, laughing. "Once I figured out what I wanted it only took me a couple hours to design. It took several weeks to get the whole thing on my body."

"What, why?"

"Oh, Tobs, you have no idea," Kelley cuts in, eyes wide. 

"Most artists won't do a full sleeve in one sitting — it's not good for either of the people involved — and then once one session ends you want to be almost completely healed before the next session or you risk extreme pain or infection. It's quite the process."

"Damn, I have more respect for Ash now." Tobin says, looking at Christen arm again in fascination. Christen doesn't ask who's they're talking about as Emily nods her head in agreement. 

"Yo, you guys want to play some ball?" Kling yells from across the yard, effectively ending their conversation, and Kelley and Emily shoot up and out of their chairs immediately. 

"Yes!" They yell in unison and then turn to Tobin excitedly but she's already shaking her head. 

"You guys feel free but I'm still recovering from my training session with Bailey." 

"Damn, okay, Chris?" Kelley asks hopefully but Christen shakes her head as well. 

"Nah, I've had a long day. Plus, the teams wouldn't be even."

"Good thinking, Pressi!" Kelley says, yelling "Have fun!" over her shoulder before running off with Emily to where the other girls are huddled. 

Christen realizes as they start choosing teams that this means she's going to be spending at least the next hour with Tobin. God, she really hopes this doesn't end up being a disaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof this was a mess from start to finish but we’re here so it’s fine. Next chapter coming soon (hopefully)


	3. The One In Which Christen Contemplates Becoming a Recluse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huh, strange to be updating twice in a week

Christen thinks about making up an excuse, any excuse that could possibly allow her to leave this situation. But then Tobin is turning to her with a lazy smile and Christen thinks this might not be so bad after all. "Do you play?"

"Soccer?" Christen asks and then continues when Tobin nods. "I did in college, not anymore though — unless Kelley drags me into one of her games."

"Why'd you stop?" She's clearly not trying to be malicious but Christen still has to hold back a grimace. She'd gotten over the disappointment many years ago, really, but having somebody sitting in front of her that represents the dream she lost hurts a part of her that she'd buried long ago. 

"Some girl snapped my ankle when taking a risky tackle and I couldn't afford the surgery and rehab necessary to come back so I quit." Christen shrugs because it's old news and, again, she's over it. 

"Oh, shit I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." Tobin trails off as she fumbles a little with her words, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. Christen waves away her concerns easily.

"Don't worry about it, I learned to accept it a long time ago. Besides, I'm happy with where I'm at right now in my life."

"Yeah, I'd say you turned out just fine without soccer." Tobin winks. Like actually fucking winks and Christen has to actively try not to melt into the floor even though it's barely flirtatious.

"Right." Christen blushes and clears her throat, Tobin's smug smirk not helping the blood rushing to her cheeks. "You don't happen to have anything to drink, do you?"

This is clearly not the response Tobin was looking for — Christen couldn't get less smooth if she tried — but she rolls with the punches easily. "What were you thinking? Alcohol?"

"I actually don't drink but if you have any type of soda, that'd be great," Christen says and Tobin nods, standing. 

"Come inside and we'll see what I have in the kitchen." The thought of being in another room alone with Tobin makes Christen's palms sweat but she lets herself be pulled off the couch anyways. Christen follows Tobin back through the sliding glass door, past the living room again, and then into the kitchen. 

"So," Tobin hums as she looks through the contents of her fridge, "I don't have much besides ginger ale and Diet Pepsi."

"I'll take a ginger ale," Christen says, gratefully taking a can of Canada Dry from Tobin when she offers it up. They pause for a moment as Christen opens the can and takes a drink then Tobin raises her eyebrows curiously. 

"Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?" Christen asks, leaning back against the counter as Tobin hops up to sit on the island.

"Soccer." It's blunt and Christen doesn't expect it to hurt as much as it does, thinking about all the things she gave up just because of that one stupid player. 

"Sometimes," Christen admits, "though, like I said, I love where I'm at right now. But soccer was my dream and I think a part of me will always wonder what if, you know?"

"Have you ever thought about coming back?"

"Oh, I couldn't, not now." Christen shakes her head, taking another sip of her drink. She's thought about it, for sure, so much that sometimes she thinks she actually could but then reality comes crashing down. It'd be impossible, it has to be. 

"Why not?" Tobin persists, straightening up. "If you loved it so much, why don't you come back?"

"You've never seen me play, how do you even know if I'm good enough?" Christen counters, folding her arms. 

"Just a hunch," she says, smiling that lazy smile that Christen has come to easily recognize already. "I think you could do it."

"Tobin, I haven't even gone to see an actual game since my injury, let alone play seriously."

"So come to our game this coming up week."

"What?" The invite catches her off guard and Christen wonders if she's even ready — if she'll ever be ready — to start watching soccer again. 

"Come to the Thorns' game against Utah on Wednesday. I can get you tickets and then you can watch my team kick Kelley's ass."

Christen laughs at the absurdity of it all and then takes a moment to think, secretly enjoying the way Tobin squirms in anticipation. "Fine but you better hold up your end of the bargain and beat Kelley."

"Yes!" Tobin pumps her fist in the air excitedly and Christen briefly wonders why she's so invested in this. "Give me your phone."

"What, why?" Christen startles, pulling her phone out of her back pocket anyway. She hands it over before Tobin even answers, not like she actually responds before typing something in and then handing it back. 

"There, now you have my number so I can text you with all the details."

Instead of fumbling, Christen ignores the heat rising to her cheeks and smirks. "Damn, I could sell this for so much money."

"Don't you dare." Tobin seems serious but there's a glint in her eyes that means she's not too concerned. 

"I might," Christen says, "especially if you don't beat Kelley."

"Ooh, pressure." Tobin rubs her hands together and swings her legs against the cabinets. "You really want us to beat Kelley, huh?"

"Yeah, well, she talks a lot of trash every time she comes to Portland despite the fact that I don't even go to the games." 

Tobin laughs and shakes her head, "Of course she does."

As if on cue, Kelley's triumphant screaming can be heard even though she's all the way in the backyard and they both burst out laughing, knowing she must have just scored a goal. "Do you think maybe we should head back out to make sure they don't kill each other?"

"Nah," Tobin waves her hand dismissively, "Emily's good at reeling Kelley in when she needs to."

"How did that happen, by the way?" Christen asks, intrigued to find out how somebody got her wild best friend to settle down. 

"What, Emily and Kelley?" Tobin shrugs when Christen nods her confirmation. "I have no clue. They met on the National Team and I guess they just hit it off. If you couldn't already tell, Sonnett is basically a mini KO."

"They seem good for each other," Christen comments, smiling softly. She remembers how hard it had been for Kelley to come out in college so the fact that she now has a girlfriend makes Christen so unbelievably happy. 

"They are. You know why Kelley's down here a week early for the game? She came to see Emily. At this point, they practically live together during the off-season."

Christen whistles under her breath and Tobin nods in agreement, eyes wide. "I'm happy for Kelley — for both of them. Having somebody to lean on will be good for her."

"Yeah." They pause as Tobin shift around on the granite countertop. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you have anybody waiting for you at home?" Tobin's blushing a little as she asks and Christen is surprised that she doesn't feel uncomfortable— especially considering they're practically strangers. 

"Just my two dogs, though they live with my parents down in California." Christen frowns, thinking about her fur babies. 

"Oh, why don't they live with you?"

"It's just easier that way. My weird hours don't really mix with having pets. Plus, they're Cali girls. They hate the cold even more than I do." Christen brings the can of ginger ale up to her lips, sipping on it slowly as Tobin chuckles. 

"Why'd you move to Portland, then?"

"What is this, twenty questions?" Tobin blushes and Christen smirks, feeling like she has the upper hand for the first time tonight. "But honestly, the scene here is really good for tattoo artists."

"And because of the soccer?" Tobin prods, noticing Christen's hesitation as she taps lightly on the can in her hands. 

"And because of the soccer." Christen nods, her eyes downcast a little and Tobin feels a little bad for bringing it up again considering how sad the other woman looks. Before she can dwell on it, there's a loud crash and a sudden cacophony of yelling. Tobin and Christen share a look before hurrying back outside. They find Kelley laying on the ground like a starfish, her chest heaving in laughter, and the grill A.D. had been using toppled over with a soccer ball laying nearby. Neither women even need to ask a single question before everybody starts pointing fingers. 

"It wasn't me!"

"Or me!"

"Kelley did it!"

"It was your fault!"

"Leave me out of this!" 

Neither Tobin or Christen can make out much of an explanation but they get the gist based on the evidence and all the fingers pointing at Kelley. "You all are children," Tobin says, rolling her eyes and picking the grill back up. She kicks the soccer ball back over to the group but they all ignore it, instead opting to take seats around the fire pit. Tobin and Christen join them, sharing the couch they'd originally sat in before they had gone to the kitchen. 

"Are y'all ready for the Royals to beat you in home territory?" Kelley says loudly, much to the objections of everyone else. 

"Your team has nothing on us," Ellie — at least, that's probably Ellie — says, kicking Kelley in the shin from her own chair. 

"Ha, as if." Kelley rolls her eyes. "Nothing can break our back line."

"Nothing can break your losing streak either," Emily fires back and Kelley clutches her chest even as she curls up closer into her girlfriend. 

"Damn, that cuts deep." Kelley then turns her mischievous smile on Christen, who already knows what she's about to ask. "Who are you rooting for, Pressi?"

"Portland, obviously." Somebody whistles, Christen thinks it's Lindsey, and the others laugh. 

"She can stay," Emily says and Kelley pokes her in annoyance. 

"Speaking of, are you coming to the game?" Kling asks and immediately Kelley's eyes light up in excitement. 

"Please, Chris. Come on, it'll be so much fun. I'll buy you the best tickets, I swear. Don't you want to see your best friend play in Providence Park? Oh, please?" Christen laughs at Kelley's rambling and rolls her eyes with a shake of her head. 

"You're lucky Tobin already convinced me to go," Christen says and Kelley's eyebrows just about shoot up to her hair line. She turns to Tobin immediately. 

"Damn, Tobs, you've got mad game if you convinced Chris to come. How much begging did you have to do?"

"Very little actually." When Kelley snorts, Tobin acts offended. "I can be charming when I need to be."

"Sure, as charming as a prepubescent schoolboy."

"That hurts, O'Hara, that hurts." Christen grins as Tobin puts a hand on her forehead as if feigning being an over dramatic woman in an old western movie. The other girls laugh as Kelley rolls her eyes. 

They settle down after that, well as much as a bunch of rowdy pro-athletes can settle down, and Christen finds herself really enjoying her time spent with Kelley's friends. And, yeah, maybe she's enjoying Tobin's company disproportionately to the others' but that doesn't have to mean anything. Sure, Tobin's attractive but that proves nothing. Though, Christen can't help but notice as the night wears on that they end up scoring closer together until their legs are firmly placed together. It's odd, considering they really have only talked once before this, but it feels natural to be this close. It does, however, freak her out just a little. 

At around five til ten, things start to wind down. Christen is the first to stand up and stretch when there's a brief lull in conversation, though others are clearly going to follow, as she says, "Well, I think it's about time I head home. I've got somewhat of an early shift tomorrow."

Kelley groans but doesn't protest as she stands up to pull Christen into a tight hug. "I better see you at that damn game."

"I'll be there, maybe in a Portland jersey." Kelley immediately pulls away with a betrayed look on her face, though a grin splits it a second later. 

"Do and you're dead to me." Christen throws her head back and laughs, already trying to figure out how she can get a jersey as quick as possible, just to mess with Kelley. 

"Noted." She hugs Kelley again quickly before grabbing her jacket without even having to be reminded. Tobin stands up as she turns and waves to the others with a shy smile, "Bye, it was nice meeting you all."

"I'll walk you out," Tobin says as the others return the sentiment, murmuring tired goodbyes that are surprisingly sincere. 

"Such a good host," Kelley teases from her spot at Emily's side but she doesn't say anything else as Tobin leads them back into the house. 

Christen is sure she could have made it to the front door by herself but she doesn't mind the company. She turns to say goodbye to Tobin before leaving and is surprised to be pulled into a warm hug. There are no protests from her end, though, and she easily wraps her arms around Tobin. It's not a long hug — that'd be weird, right? — and they pull away after a few seconds, an oddly shy smile on Tobin's face. "I'm glad you came tonight."

"So am I," Christen says softly and Tobin's grin grows even wider. "Goodnight, Tobin."

She pulls the door open and walks to her car as the words, "Goodnight, Chris," follow her out. 

After she's finally home, freshly showered and content as she lays in bed, Christen can't help but grin up at the ceiling — though she's not quite sure why. All Christen knows is that she gets a few new followers on Instagram that night. Most notably, one verified Tobin Heath.

Her exhaustion at work the next day is worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Next chapter is already finished so it should be up sometime this week!


	4. The One In Which Kelley Has Christen Spiraling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh the one in which I’m pretty sure I’ve lost all ability to write properly

It's strange, how people can come into your life so easily — how thinking about not knowing them suddenly becomes a foreign idea. That's how Christen feels about Tobin even though they've only met twice. They've been texting, though. Kinda a lot. It doesn't feel weird to be talking so much to somebody she barely knows but it should, right? 

It started with Christen texting Tobin to thank her for letting her crash their party and it snowballed from there. Suddenly Christen is texting her during her lunch break and Tobin is sending pictures of herself post training session with a ball tucked under her arm — and if Christen takes extra long to look at a picture that includes her abs, well, nobody is around to see her do it. And maybe Christen lets Tobin see some of the designs she's working on even thought the thought of anybody else seeing them makes her face heat up and Tobin in return sends pictures of a painting she's been slowly finishing for literal years. And Christen knows what Tobin has for lunch because she sent a picture of it with the caption "jealous?" and, yeah, she's a little jealous of how good it looks compared to the limp salad Christen is eating in the break room. But that's what friends do, right? 

Kelley doesn't think so. Did Christen ask for her input — no, absolutely not — but she gives it anyway while simultaneously bugging her at work. Which means showing up to her place of employment and parading around like she owns the place. Christen, not for the first time, thanks god that every Tuesday is a slow day and that the afternoon shift only consists of one person. 

"Pressi!" Kelley's loud voice booms through the empty store and startles Christen as she closes her sketch book. She's looks up to find Kelley pushing through the glass doors with a wide grin on her face. 

"Hey, Kel. What's up?" She sets her drawings to the side and stands up, almost immediately being tackled into a hug. 

"What, I can't just come visit my dear friend?" She says when she pulls away, a teasing grin already playing on her lips. 

"I mean, I'm working right now."

"Is your boss here? Is anyone here?" Kelley makes a show of looking around as if there's a person she missed seeing on the way in. 

"No," Christen answers hesitantly and Kelley shrugs, flopping down into one of the chairs in the waiting area. Raising an eyebrow, Christen sighs and pulls a stool around from her work station and sits on it heavily. 

"Great! Then I'm here to pay you a visit," Kelley says and then props her feet up on the coffee table, much to the annoyance of Christen who kicks at her legs until she puts them back on the floor. 

"Can I at least give you a tattoo while you're here?"

"Hell no," Kelley says, shaking her head insistently, "but if you've got some pens I'll let you draw on me."

"Ugh, fine, but you better be a big tipper." Christen puts her stool back in its original place and then grabs the markers she's was drawing with earlier. 

"Trust me, I'm the best tipper." Kelley winks seductively and Christen can't help but laugh, taking a seat in the chair next to her and immediately grabbing for her arm. 

"I hate you," Christen says as she uncaps a black marker and pulls Kelley's arm closer. 

"Damn, you're about to rip my shoulder out of the socket," Kelley says and Christen pointedly gives her arm another tug. 

"It's all part of my process," she murmurs with a smirks, leaning closer so that she can start fleshing out the basic details. "If somebody comes in, I'm kicking you out."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kelley grins, all smug as Christen chuckles, deliberately pressing her marker just a little to hard in her skin. "Ow!"

"Oops, my bad." Kelley shoves Christen's head and she almost messes up, drawing a line that's a little too ragged for the flower pattern she's started designing on her forearm. 

"I feel like I'm in middle school again when the teacher would get mad at me for drawing on myself," Kelley remarks as she watches Christen start carefully connecting lines, her tongue barely peeking out from in between her teeth. "That happened a lot to me."

"Why am I not surprised?" Christen glances up as Kelley rolls her eyes but doesn't protest because yeah, Kelley would be that kind of kid. Their conversation dies out for a little bit after that, the shop playlist playing quietly in the background. After a couple minutes, Kelley starts squirming and opens her mouth again. 

"So..." she drawls and Christen has heard that tone enough times to be scared to hear what comes next. 

"So..." she responds back, smirking despite her hesitancy to listen to whatever Kelley is about to say. 

"You and Tobin seem pretty buddy-buddy." Christen hides her blush by keeping her eyes focused on the rose she's drawing, not looking up to see the grin that's on Kelley's face.

"Hmm, she seems like a cool person," Christen says, continuing to draw as Kelley snorts her disbelief. 

"I heard y'all have been texting," Kelley says, changing her approach. 

"Are you keeping tabs on me, O'Hara?"

"Oh please, I don't even have to try." Kelley laughs, shaking her arm enough that Christen has to hold it still. "Tobin talks about you enough as it is."

Christen has to resist the urge to ask, "she talks about me?" and instead opts to hide her blush and say, "Aw, that's sweet."

"Sweet my ass," Kelley says and Christen just knows she's rolling her eyes, "the heart eyes are driving me insane. Just ask the poor girl on a date."

"Kel," Christen says softly, running a hand through her hair as she finally looks up, "we're just friends. She doesn't like me like that. We just met this week, if you don't remember."

"Oh, I remember but someone might want to tell Tobin that." Kelley is staring pointedly at her so Christen just goes back to finishing her drawing, adding a bunch of tiny flowers around the larger centerpieces. 

Christen's mind is running a little wild thinking about Tobin so she's relieved to here the bell ring above the door about five minutes later, signaling a new customer. She's less relieved when a gaggle of exuberant college girls crowd around the entrance but she sighs and stands up anyway. "I guess I'm done," Christen says to Kelley, who starts examining the ink covering her forearm with wide, appraising eyes. 

Christen and Kelley both walk up to the group of girls, Christen standing behind the counter as Kelley moves to walk by. There's a chorus of "wow" and "that's so cool" as Kelley tries to move past the group of girls to the exit. Christen rolls her eyes. 

"Kel, I swear to god if you don't tip me you're never allowed back in the shop," Christen says and Kelley turns around with a heavy sigh despite the wide grin on her face. She raises her hands in surrender and pulls out a five dollar bill. 

"Buy yourself something pretty." Kelley kisses her on the cheek and presses the money into her hand as Christen rolls her eyes. As she walks away, Kelley looks over her shoulder and grins. "Or buy some flowers for your girlfriend."

Before Christen can yell after her, Kelley is gone and the group of college girls are walking up to the counter. Christen counts five of them before the blonde in the middle starts talking. "We want matching tattoos."

Great. 

Four hours and several customers later, her boss finally shows up for her shift and Christen is finally allowed to leave. It's only 6 o'clock when she gets home but Christen eats some cold pizza and then falls asleep on top of all the covers on her bed, bone tired but excited for the game tomorrow. 

Her shift the next day isn't much better. It's an earlier shift than what she's used to and even though it's a Wednesday, quite a few people come in. Her coworker is working in the back away from all the chaos so that she can finish an insanely detailed design for one of her regular customers so Christen is left to brave the masses all by herself. She should've known it was going to be a bad day when a group of drunk men came into the shop at 5 in the morning looking for ass tattoos. They left after throwing up in one of the nearby trash cans and not paying for anything. It doesn't get much better after that. 

Christen does actually end up doing a butt tattoo but it's for a woman who is significantly less drunk. She also gives a screaming toddler lobe piercings — something she never enjoys about her job — and two teenage girls septum piercings. There's a tongue piercing right before midday that bleeds more than it should and an angry customer complaining about an infected daith piercing — the woman ends up leaving after Christen calmly explains that she has to actually clean the piercing with something other than tap water. She does a wrist tattoo that's more than a little depressing and one on the ribs of a guy who won't stop squirming. One woman leaves when she finds out the pricing of jewelry and another guy complains about the prices the entire time he's getting his tattoo and then doesn't tip.

By the time Christen leaves the shop, she's just about ready to tear her hair out and sleep for two days straight. Instead, she goes home and gets ready for the game. After slipping on some new clothes and touching up her makeup, Christen is back out the door and heading to Providence Park. It's easy to find considering she drives by it at least once a week and getting in is relatively simple thanks to the ticket that Tobin had emailed her to print out. 

When she finally finds her seat, which is surprisingly close to the field, Christen all but falls into it with a heavy sigh. It's been a long day but she's hoping that seeing her friends play a nice game of soccer (read: fight to the death) should start to ease the tension in her shoulders. It helps when she sees Tobin nutmeg Emily, who dramatically falls to the ground, and laugh with a huge smile on her face. 

After their team finishes warm-ups, she sees Tobin scan the crowd and Christen sits up a little straighter in hopes of catching her eye. When Tobin's eyes finally land on Christen, her grin broadens and she makes a gesture as if telling Christen to wait a second and then runs over to her team's bench. She picks something up from off the bench and then jogs over to where Christen is at, much to the excitement of the fans all around her. Christen is glad that her seat is right along the barrier so that Tobin can get as close as possible without actually climbing up into the stands. She waves the thing in her hands and Christen realizes with a startled laugh that's it's a Tobin Heath jersey. 

"Chris, catch," Tobin yells over the screams of the fans and then throws the jersey right into Christen's hands. 

"Thank you," Christen says, tightening her grip on the jersey. "Now, go kick some ass."

Some of the people eye her curiously as Tobin runs back over to her team. Christen is too busy slipping the jersey over her tank-top to notice Lindsey teasing Tobin, who blushes furiously and sends a glance over to Christen. She grins and directs a thumbs up her way when she see Christen wearing it and then goes back to getting ready. Christen, for her part, can't stop grinning. 

The game starts a few minutes later, after Kelley sends her an excited wave when she sees her and Christen is sure she doesn't notice the jersey. As soon as the game kicks off, the Thorns are pressing forward. Utah has no choice but to defend, Kelley slide tackling the shit out of most of the forwards. It's weird seeing Kelley play defense after setting records at Stanford even though Christen had watched her on TV during the World Cup. Seeing it in real life is different and it makes her heart ache with the realization of how much things have changed. Though, late in the first half, Christen realizes that the crease in her eyebrows when the other team scores is still the same and Christen thinks she might also be able to see the familiar look of guilt if she were on the field. Kelley's feet drag as they move back to the center of the pitch to start again and Christen regrets asking Tobin to beat her — even though she knows Tobin would be doing it anyways. Going into halftime, Portland is up one to nothing and the crowd is screaming their heads off. 

Christen notices as the second half kicks off that Utah doesn't have a strong line of players up top. Rodriguez is pulling her own, making runs that are hard to shut down but the rest of the players aren't doing much offensively. Their back line is strong, just like Kelley had said. Her and another player that Christen recognizes from the World Cup are working together fluidly but that isn't worth anything if they can't finish. The game ends one nil. 

As soon as the whistle blows, Kelley is streaking across the field towards Christen. Over the screaming of fans she manages to yell, "Pressi, get down here!" Kelley ends up pulling Christen onto the field, much to the dismay of the security guards lingering nearby and the protests of Christen — who's pretty sure she's not suppose to be doing this. Kelley doesn't care though as she drag her all over the pitch, introducing her to more people than Christen can count. By the time she's finally pulled in the direction of Tobin and Emily, Christen is pretty sure her brain has melted from trying to remember so many new faces. 

"Tobs, don't think I didn't notice you coercing poor Chris into one of your jerseys," Kelley says as soon as she walks up to them, Christen smiling at her side. "I can't believe you'd take advantage of her like that."

"It had to be done, Kel," Tobin says and then turns an appraising eye on Christen, looking her up and down. "You look great by the way."

"Oh, uh, thank you," Christen stammers out, a light blush starting to paint her cheeks pink. 

"Eh, I think number sixteen would've been a better choice," Emily butts in, pointing at the number on her own shorts. Kelley rolls her eyes and shoves Emily lightly. 

"Damn, that's betrayal on the highest level," Kelley says, crossing her arms jokingly as Emily puts an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't worry, babe, five is my favorite number." Emily almost kisses her on the cheek but seems to remember where they are at the last moment, instead opting to wink at Kelley. 

"Get a room!" Tobin says, fake gagging as Emily blushes and Kelley kicks at her shins. Christen nods her head quickly. 

"Who knew Kelley was so into PDA," Christen remarks, causing Emily and Tobin to laugh over Kelley's protests. 

"Yo!" Lindsey yells, jogging over and joining the group with a smile of recognition sent Christen's way. "A bunch of us are going out to that bar nearby, we even convinced Becky to come with. You guys in?"

"Totally," Tobin says and then sends a smirk Kelley's way. "You owe me a beer, O'Hara."

Kelley sighs but looks at Emily, who nods her head, before turning her head back towards Lindsey. "Yeah, we're in too."

"What about you Christen?" Lindsey asks and then suddenly everybody is looking at her as she shakes her head. 

"Thanks for the invite but I'm probably just gonna head home."

"What, Chris, no! You've gotta come with, you'd love the other girls," Kelley says, tugging on Christen's arms like an insistent toddler. 

"Sorry, Kel, but it's been a long day. I started my day with a bunch of drunk guys and I don't want to end it like that." Christen shakes her head, even though she almost breaks when she sees the identical looks of disappointment on the faces of Kelley and Tobin. "Plus, you know I don't drink."

"Yeah, okay," Kelley nods, frowning a little, but then she starts grinning again. "So tell me about these drunk guys you saw this morning?"

Lindsey wanders off as Christen sighs heavily, rolling her eyes at the thought of her first 'customers' of the day. "These three guys came into the shop this morning at the beginning of my shift — which was at 5 a.m — drunk as hell and they wanted ass tattoos."

"What did I hear about ass tattoos?" One of Kelley's teammates say, interest piqued as she was about to walk by, and as Christen blushes she realizes it's the woman from the World Cup that she recognized. 

"Oh, Becky, have I introduced you to Christen?" When the woman — Becky — shakes her head and steps into their circle of conversation, Kelley grins. "This is Christen, she's a friend from college."

"It's nice to meet you," Becky says politely and then raises her eyebrows, "so what about those tattoos?"

"Oh, um, I had a few drunk customers this morning looking for tattoos on their rear end." Becky winces as Christen nods. "Yeah, one threw up in our trashcan and then they all left. Without their tattoos."

"Sounds like a great way to start off the day," Tobin says, wrinkling her nose sympathetically. 

"You're a tattoo artist?" Becky asks, her eyes flickering to Christen's left arm. 

"Yeah, and I do piercings."

"She's the one that did Tobin's ears. Remember I showed you the video?" Kelley says excitedly and Becky nods. Christen, on the other hand, turns to Tobin with raised eyebrows. 

"Speaking of," Christen says and Tobin immediately scratches the back of her neck, "I noticed your ears are strangely bare."

"Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of the idea of them getting ripped out so I took them out for game."

Christen knew that, she was mostly just teasing, and so she nods. "I'm sure the refs wouldn't have let you on the field anyway. Just make sure you clean the jewelry, your hands, and the site of the piercing before you put them back in. I don't want to see you in the shop two weeks from now with infected lobe piercings."

They all laugh and Tobin nods, nudging her shoulder against Christen's. "Will do, though it'd be worth it to see you again."

Tobin winks at her for the second goddamn time and Christen flushes bright red, smiling softly. Kelley fake coughs and mutters "whipped" under her breath, much to the amusement of Emily and Becky. Christen rolls her eyes and then turns back to Kelley. 

"Don't you guys have somewhere better to be?" She asks, arms crossed. 

Kelley mumbles something that Christen can't quite hear but Emily laughs and both of them walk off. Becky turns to follow after them but then sends a glance back towards Christen. "That ink on your arm is majorly impressive by the way." She leaves before Christen can respond but it doesn't stop her from blushing even more than she already is. 

"You probably need to get going, too, don't you?" Christen murmurs and Tobin nods — though she seems a little disappointed. 

"Yeah, but I'll at least show you how to get out of the arena first," Tobin says and then grabs Christen's hand to pull her towards the exit. She doesn't let go as she leads them both out into a hallway, past the locker rooms, and then through another hallway until they come to the main enternace of the building. 

"Thank you for the jersey," Christen says, turning to Tobin as she releases her hand. 

"No problem. Thanks for coming to the game." Tobin hesitates and sends a glance over her shoulder. "I'd walk you to your car but we'd probably get mobbed."

Christen laughs and nods her head understandingly, shifting her weight a little. "Well, I'll see you later, okay?"

"You better not ghost me now that you have a jersey to sell," Tobin jokes and then smiles, pulling Christen into a hug that is still a little unexpected. "I'll text you later."

"Goodnight, Tobin," Christen calls over her shoulder as she walks away and Tobin sends her a wave before heading back towards where they came from. 

Christen doesn't stop smiling for the rest of the night. Though, as she crawls into bed, she can't help but wonder what the fuck happens now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not sure how I’m feeling about this story but we’re chilling. Thanks for reading!


	5. The One In Which Christen Actually Gets To Do Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry y’all but this chapter isn’t my best. It’s mostly just a (very predictable, apparently) filler.

Christen wakes up the next day to a text from Tobin and her stomach twists, restlessness nagging at the back of her head. She texts back but the feeling doesn't go away, even as she snorts into her mug of coffee at the picture Tobin sends. It's her flexing her arm, jumping on the back of Emily as Lindsey lays on the grass, disdain written all over her face. The text that follows simply reads "megged her." Christen goes to work with a smile on her face but her foot tapping anxiously. 

When she finally gets to work, her jitters still not gone, the first customer she gets is a teenage girl nervously wringing her hands. She fidgets even as she requests a smiley, one of Christen's favorite piercings. The piercing goes through the frenulum of the lip, bottom or top, and this girl requests the top, which usually can only be seen when the person smiles, hence the term 'smiley'. Christen is surprised when the girl tells her that's what she wants but she doesn't say anything, instead nodding. These types of piercings kind of suck to do because it's a very delicate process and the added problem of the lips being in the way doesn't help. 

Naturally, Christen goes through her whole spiel, gets the waivers signed as usual, and then makes sure to check that the girl's frenulum isn't too thin. It's not, so she goes ahead with the piercing. To her credit, the girl barely flinches and takes the bleeding like a champ. She's smiling by the time her mom is handing over her debit card. As the girl leaves the shop Christen thinks, "I want a new piercing." The thought lingers at the back of her head as her phone starts buzzing and she picks it up, not even bothering to look at the contact. 

"Pressi!" Kelley's voice floats through the other end and Christen grins. "What time does your shift end?"

"Noon."

"Great! How do you feel about coming out to lunch with me, Em, and Tobs after?" Kelley asks and there's a bunch of vague yelling on the other end, which tells Christen she's still with her teammates. 

"Yeah, that sounds fine. Just send me the address of the place." Christen hesitates and then blurts, "I'm thinking about getting a new piercing."

"What, your twenty others aren't enough?" Kelley teases and Christen shakes her head, laughing. 

"Seventeen."

"Right, sorry, my bad, seventeen piercings," Kelley corrects herself sarcastically and Christen can feel the eye roll all the way through the phone. 

"Anyways, I think I want to get another lip piercing. Most of my other ones are on my ears." Christen runs her tongue over the ring that goes through her lip and feels a thrill of excitement at the thought of something new. 

"Sick! I think you should do it," Kelley says and Christen's not surprised. She mostly just told her for the reassurance that she's not crazy. The bell above the door rings and Christen glances up, a little surprised to see a familiar face. She gestures to the phone pressed against her ear and then signals that she'll be done in a moment. 

"Okay, well, I'll probably get it done here so I might be a couple minutes late to lunch."

"Sounds good, Pressi. See you soon!"

"See you soon, Kel," Christen says and hangs up, now fully turning to the new customer. 

"I heard this is the best place in all of Portland to get a tattoo?" The woman asks and Christen laughs. 

"I wouldn't go that far." Christen eyes the woman, thinks for a moment, and then nods. "You're Becky, right? One of Kelley's teammates?"

"Yeah, she's talked nonstop about your shop since we got into town. Your website said no appointment necessary for small tattoos but I wasn't sure?" She's hesitant as she steps up to the counter, seeming a little out of her element, and Christen nods. 

"Yeah, we pretty much only do walk-ins unless you're looking for something massive or hyper-realistic." 

"Great! I was kind of hoping I could get something small done on my wrist?" She asks, holding up the appendage in question and Christen nods. 

"No problem but, um, we usually don't recommend any exercise within the first two days and, uh, you're a professional athlete," Christen trails off, looking at Becky expectantly. 

"Oh, that's fine." Becky waves away her concerns easily. "We've got a later game next week so practice was pushed back a day. No exercise, I swear."

"Perfect, so why don't we go back over here so we can start sketching out what you're looking for." Christen leads Becky back to the consultation tables they have set up. "What are you thinking?"

"Um, I was hoping to get the number four on the inside of my wrist?"

"Oh! Script, perfect. That'll be super easy." Christen grabs one of the drawing tablets and pulls up the font section, typing in the number. "What kind of font are you looking for? Traditional, gothic..."

Christen starts scrolling through the options as Becky watches, looking at how the number changes. "Oh, wait can you go back to the last one?"

Christen complies easily, changing it back. "This one?"

"Yeah," Becky pause and looks at it for a second, "can we go with that one?"

"Of course. Now what size are you looking for?" 

"I don't really want it that big," Becky says hesitantly and Christen nods. 

"Okay, well I have to warn you that as the tattoo ages, the lines widen and blur so going too small will leave you with a blob on your arm ten years down the road."

"Can I get it like, this big?" Becky pinches her fingers apart and Christen nods. 

"Yeah, that should be perfect. It'll blur but you should still be able to see what it is." Christen changes the size slightly on the tablet. "I'll print out the stencil and put it on your skin and if you don't like it, we can always change it, ok?"

Becky nods and Christen gets to work. She prints out the stencil and goes to grab it from the back. When she comes back, her and Becky talk about exact placement before she starts sticking it on her. Putting it where she wants it takes a little while because she wants to get the placement right but once she does, Becky grins. "It's perfect."

"You're sure?" At Becky's nod, Christen continues. "Okay, before we get started I have to get you to sign all the forms."

They go through the process easily, Becky compliantly signing each form as Christen hands them to her and pretty soon they're good to go. The soccer player is looking a little jittery as she sits down in the chair, setting her arm on the armrest hesitantly. Christen confirms with her one more time that she's 100% positive she wants to get tattooed and then she prays that Becky isn't one of those customers that moves around a lot. 

"Okay," Christen says, taking out the ink after cleaning off Becky's arm, "what you'll most likely feel is similar to a cat scratch but I'm going to need you to breathe, okay?"

"Okay." Becky nods and then grins nervously. "I've got a couple cats at home so hopefully this won't be much different."

Christen nods her acknowledgment, placing the needle that she wants in the tattoo gun and then starts it up, the familiar buzz filling the silence of the shop. Christen talks over the buzzing as she lowers it to Becky's arm, explaining what's going on as she brings it to her skin. To her credit, Becky barely flinches as she watches Christen dutifully outline the design. She's got a small wince on her face so Christen gives her a small smile and hopefully distract her by asking, "So, why are you still in Portland? I know Kel's here cause of Emily but I thought the rest of the team left?"

Becky lights up and Christen is thrilled that her distraction worked. "I live here pretty much full time when I'm not playing soccer. My boyfriend and I have an apartment downtown."

Christen nods and lets Becky talk about her boyfriend and their two cats as she focuses on the tattoo. By the time Christen turns off the gun and wipes away the last of the excess ink and blood, Becky's smiling like a seasoned pro. Christen lets her examine the tattoo and snap a picture of it before she cleans it and then wraps it. 

"I love it, thank you," Becky says earnestly as they stand up to walk to the front counter again. Christen nods shyly, trying not to be awkward when she smiles. As they make it back up to the register, Christen goes through the healing process, aftercare, and the many things Becky should stay away from. 

"If you have any questions, feel free to call me or the shop," Christen says, handing over the shop's information and her business card. "And your total — with the aftercare products — is sixty-five dollars."

Becky nods and puts all of her credit card information into the tablet that Christen hands her. When she gives it back, Christen looks it over and her jaw drops at the tip. What is with professional soccer players and their generous tips? Christen understands that people like even numbers but just bumping up the price to one hundred dollars — making it a thirty-five dollar tip — is a little insane. Not like she's complaining though as she thanks Becky gratefully. 

Waving away her thanks, Becky shrugs. "You deserve it. Kelley was right, this was definitely a worthwhile experience." Christen stutters out another thank you as Becky leaves, waving to her as she goes. 

Not much else happens for the rest of her shift. She does a couple lobe piercings and one through the septum. One lady does come in causing trouble and asking for Christen's boss. She spends an hour refusing to talk to anybody but the manager before Christen finds out that the woman is here for a simple jewelry pick-up. Her boss had seen the transaction through so the woman was convinced she was the only one that could get the order to her. Christen has to consciously make an effort to not roll her eyes as she hands the package over to the woman and sighs at an hour wasted. Other than that, everything is pretty okay. 

Soon two of her coworkers are showing up to take over. Christen broaches the topic of getting a smiley with the one that takes over for her and he's all for it. She goes through the exact same process that she went through this morning with that teenager but this time she's on the opposite end as her coworker goes through the whole spiel. 

It hurts. Worse than her lip ring. But not as bad as her industrial piercing — which is still a little fucked up from how inexperienced her piercer had been. She pays for it in the tips that she earned today and then is heading to the address Kelley has texted her, resisting the urge to poke the new piercing with her tongue.

As she pulls up to the place they're supposed to be meeting, Christen realizes her restlessness from earlier in the morning were gone. Nothing like a new piercing to get rid of jitters, apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah... idk this chapter was weird. Next chapter is better (hopefully) and, ya know, more vital to the plot or whatever. Thanks for reading!


	6. The One In Which Muscle Memory is a Real Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another lovely chapter in which I’m pretty sure my writing skills continue to go downhill. Enjoy :)

The others are already at the restaurant by the time Christen walks in and they're sitting in a booth — Kelley and Emily on one side and Tobin by herself on the other. Christen easily slips in next to Tobin as the three women greet her exuberantly. Immediately, Kelley is looking at Christen's lips for the new piercing but then she furrows her eyebrows. "Where's the new bling at?"

Christen grins, her lips lifting up to reveal her teeth and the lower edge of her gum. "Oh, ouch," Emily says as she catches sight of the jewelry and Kelley nods in agreement. 

"It looks pretty badass though," Kelley says and Tobin tugs on her shoulder so that Christen will turn so she can see. 

"That's dope," Tobin agrees as soon as she sees it and Christen smiles even wider despite how sore her gums feels. 

"Scale of one to ten, how much did it hurt?" Emily asks as the waiter comes over with their glasses of water. 

"Eh, maybe a five. It hurt more than my other lip piercing but not nearly as bad as the cartilage piercings in my ear."

"Eating is gonna be a bitch," Kelley says as she eyes the menu. Christen flips her's open and looks through the options for something that won't irritate the new piercing. 

"Yeah, only soft food for the next few days," Christen says and Kelley hums in acknowledgment. "I'll probably get the pretzel then."

"That's a terrible lunch," Tobin says, her knee knocking against Christen's as she speaks. She shrugs and continues to look through the other options. 

"How are you supposed to clean it? You've always done that ear spray stuff or a salt water soak," Kelley says, her eyes still watching Christen's lips like she's not quite used to the shiny metal yet. 

"I'm suppose to swish water around in my mouth for a couple minutes." Everybody at the table grimaces but Christen secretly thinks it's worth it. 

"Is this considered your midlife crisis?" Emily asks as she takes a sip of her water and Kelley laughs. 

"This would be her eighteenth midlife crisis," Kelley teases and Emily snorts, the pair leaning into each other. Tobin, on the other hand, turns to look at Christen. 

"You have eighteen piercings?" Tobin's mouth is wide open as Christen nods, giggling under her breath. 

"Yep. These four." Christen gestures to her lip piercing and the two on her nose. "Nine on my left ear and six on my right. Though six of those eighteen are lobe piercings, which barely count."

"Hey!" Tobin protests weakly at her last comment as Christen turns her head so that Tobin can see, brushing aside her curls so that they don't cover any of the jewelry. "Damn, that one in the middle looks like it hurt."

"The daith? Eh, it wasn't that bad. I went to a really high-end shop for it so the person who did it was really good," Christen fiddles with the jewelry slightly now that it's fully healed, tugging on it even though she knows she's not supposed to. 

"You thinking about getting one, Tobs?" Kelley asks and Tobin's eyes widen as she shakes her head rapidly. 

"Uh-uh, I could never." Tobin reaches up to touch her the studs in her own ear but Christen gently whacks her hand away and Tobin pulls it back sheepishly. "They're cool and all but I couldn't handle it."

"They're not for everybody." Christen shrugs and sets her menu down as the waitress comes over to take their orders. Christen nervously stutters out her order for the pretzel despite the gently ribbing of Tobin. Once she's gone again with their orders written down, Christen taps on her upper lip. "This new one is a pain in the ass and it's not even going to last that long."

"It's not permanent?" Emily asks, her head snapping up. 

"Nah, it's pierced through such a thin piece of skin that the jewelry is eventually rejected. At most, they last five years but some only survive for about a year."

"Damn." Tobin whistles lowly and raises her eyebrows, impressed. 

"Anything else that makes me not want to get it?" Kelley asks sarcastically and Christen laughs, pretending to rub her chin thoughtfully. 

"Well, no French kissing until it's fully healed."

"The lesbians of Portland must be so disappointed," Kelley says and Christen throws one of the straw wrappers at her. Out of the corner of her eye, Christen can see Tobin watching her and she realizes that Kelley just inadvertently outed her. Whatever, like it's not obvious that she's gay anyways. 

"I can still kiss, but no open mouths like you and Emily over there." Christen says and Emily blushes bright red as Tobin laughs. 

"As if you've ever seen us kiss," Kelley fires back, her hand unconsciously fiddling with Emily's hair as she says it. 

"I don't know, you guys seem to be pretty into PDA." Christen shrugs, her smile growing as Kelley rolls her eyes. Kelley goes to say something but the waitress comes back and refills all their cups, effectively cutting the conversation off. 

"So, Chris, what are you doing after this?" Tobin asks, picking up her water to drink as soon as the waitress is gone. 

"I don't know." Christen shrugs, twirling her straw. "Probably just going to hang out at home, maybe do some grocery shopping."

"Boring!" Kelley calls out. "What you're actually going to do is hang out with us."

"Kel—"

"Please, Chris, it's my last day before I've got to head back to Utah. Don't you want to spend time with your best friend before she leaves for god knows how long?"

"Jerk," Christen mutters but she's smiling anyway. "Fine. What are you guys doing?"

"Well, there's a park nearby." Emily grins and Tobin lights up, nodding. 

"We were thinking about playing some soccer and you'd help even out the teams," Tobin adds in, her eyes bright with excitement.

"And I'd really love to show these two what a Stanford connection looks like," Kelley says, knowing Christen won't back down from a challenge. 

"I hate you," Christen mumbles at Kelley but eventually gives a small smile and nods. "I'll go but if any of you get near my piercings, I'm leaving."

"Deal." Kelley grins, bouncing in her seat excitedly. The conversation moves on but dread starts to pool in Christen's stomach as she thinks about what she just agreed to. Kelley and Emily are arguing about the merits required to be a veteran player and Christen isn't really tracking the conversation when Tobin knocks their knees together. Christen glances towards her and finds her eyebrows furrowed. 

"You don't have to play if you don't want to, I didn't mean to pressure you," Tobin murmurs and Christen glances over to make sure Kelley and Emily are still engrossed in their conversation. It's startles her a little that Tobin can already read her so easily and she turns back to her as the couple continues to argue. 

"No it's fine." Christen gives a weak smile. "I'm excited."

"Are you sure because—" Tobin cuts herself off, eyes tracking something past Christen's shoulder and she turns to find the waitress placing their food down.

"Oh, thank you," Christen says shyly as she sets down her pretzel and Emily and Kelley pull themselves out of their conversation to turn and smile at the waitress as well. 

"Enjoy your meal," the waitress says and then leaves to the murmured thanks that sound from around the table. Christen looks at everybody else's meal, rolls her eyes at Kelley's salad, and is a little sad she only got a pretzel. The disappointment only lasts for about a minute until she's distracted by taking a bite of her pretzel and just about spitting it out reflexively. It hurts like hell but Christen forces herself to chew and swallow the bite before setting the pretzel down with a wince.

"I think I'll just save this for later." Christen nudges the plate away from her and instead opts to sip her water as Kelley raises her eyebrows. 

"Regretting your midlife crisis?" Kelley asks, stabbing a forkful of lettuce. 

"Just a little." She crinkles her nose and then drinks some more water, this time swishing it around gently. 

"Do you want to order something else?" Tobin asks, taking a bite of her sandwich. Even as Christen's stomach growls, she shakes her head. 

"I don't want to cause any trouble. I'll just wait until I get home, maybe make a smoothie or something."

"Just order a smoothie here," Kelley says, eyes already scanning the restaurant for their waitress. She's flagging her down before Christen can protest, flushing bright red when the waitress walks over with a smile. 

"What can I do for you?" She asks cheerily, eyes glancing around the table, and Christen prays for the ground to swallow her whole. 

"Do y'all have any smoothie options?" Kelley asks, fluttering her eyelashes and putting on a southern drawl just for the purpose of tormenting Christen a little more. 

"Um, yeah! We have strawberry banana, mango, or blueberry. Would you like to try one?"

"Chris, what kind of smoothie do you want?" Kelley asks, turning to look at her with a glint in her eye and Christen briefly considers murder. 

"Strawberry banana, please," Christen mumbles, twirling a piece of her hair nervously as the waitress nods. 

"That'll be right out!"

"Thank you," Christen says appreciatively in hopes to make up for the fact that she just double ordered. The waitress leaves and Christen sighs in relief. 

"Now was that so hard?" Kelley asks as she turns to Christen, who's bright red and resisting the urge to sink even lower in her seat. 

"You suck," Christen mumbles and Emily furrows her eyebrows, looking between the pair with a frown. 

"What was that for?" Emily asks and Christen didn't think it was possible to blush anymore but she proves herself wrong, the skin on the back of her neck going warm. 

"Pressi here has the worst time asking for things." Kelley rolls her eyes fondly. "Do you know how many times I had to order stuff for her in college? Girl should have paid me to be her personal assistant at that point."

"I wasn't that bad," Christen mumbles and Tobin's knee knocks against her's. "It's just a little social anxiety is all."

"Chris, you know it's her job to get you things, right?" Kelley says softly and it's a reassurance that Christen can always count on her for even if she just put her through hell not even a minute earlier. 

"I know," Christen says and then, as an afterthought, "thank you."

"Are we not going to talk about the real issue here?" Tobin asks, startling Christen as she turns to look at her nervously. "You ordered a strawberry banana smoothie when mango was an option."

Christen laughs, surprised at the disgust on Tobin's face, and makes their knees hit each other for the billionth time in the past hour. "Mango smoothies are terrible, they taste like grass."

"That's just... blasphemy." Tobin crinkles her nose but then breaks out in a smile when Christen pokes her in the ribs. 

"Plus, blueberry was an option. Strawberry banana is the worst flavor," Emily adds and Christen shakes her head adamantly. 

"Those two flavors have nothing in common with each other," Tobin says. 

"I mean, they're both fruits." Christen shifts, accidentally brushing her arm against Tobin's as she does so.

"That's like saying lemon and kiwi go together because they're fruits."

"Whatever, I stand by my decision," Christen says, taking a sip of her water and cringing when she just barely catches the straw on the new metal in her mouth. Emily and Tobin both go to protest but the waitress comes back holding her — apparently "blasphemous" — smoothie and she sets it down on the table. 

"Let me know if you guys need anything else," she says and then winks — fucking winks — at Christen before walking off. As she blushes, Christen briefly wonders why so many people have winked at her in the past week. It's quite disconcerting. 

"Ooh, she's cute," Kelley says, wiggling her eyebrows as Christen tries to hide her red face by ducking her head to drink her smoothie. "And she's your type — pretty and blonde."

"First of all, that's your type not mine." Christen nods her head towards Emily. "Second of all, I already told you no kissing for a little while."

Kelley's eyes flick to the jewelry in Christen's mouth like she'd forgotten about it despite the fact that it had caused the whole smoothie debacle. "Damn, cock blocked by your own poor choices."

Christen almost chokes on her laughter as she drinks some more of her smoothie, coughing a little as she rolls her eyes. "Can we talk about something else other than my failing love life?"

"Why don't we talk about how we're going to beat these fool at their own game once you finish that damn smoothie?" 

This immediately ignites a debate among the table about who's going to win and why. Christen doesn't contribute much to the conversation, too busy downing her smoothie so that she doesn't waste their time to really be paying attention. The waitress is back almost as soon as Christen finishes her drink, inquiring about dessert and tacking on another wink for good measures. Christen wants die. 

"We'll just take the check please," Tobin cuts it, hand patting Christen on the knee reassuringly as she blushes for what must be the hundredth time today. 

"Split?"

"Just one please, I'm paying," Kelley says and Christen whips her head up. The waitress leaves before she can protest and Christen looks across the table with wide eyes. 

"What? Kel—"

"Chris, I invited you, I'm paying. Plus I lost a bet to Tobin and Em so..." Kelley shrugs and Emily nods with a wide grin, like even the idea of Kelley losing makes her happy. Christen doesn't argue further but she still feels a little bad when the waitress comes back with the check. 

"I love your tattoos, by the way. They're beautiful," the waitress says as she waits for Kelley to pull out her credit card. 

"Oh, uh, thank you." Christen doesn't say anything else but she leans a little closer to Tobin and the waitress' smile falters as Kelley hands everything back to her. When she leaves, Kelley shakes her head. 

"You could've at least given the poor girl your number," she says but Christen just rolls her eyes, hoping that her face isn't the color of a tomato. The waitress is back quickly with Kelley's credit card and sends one last glance Christen's way before hurrying off to help another table. 

"Come on, to the park," Emily says exuberantly, bouncing out of the restaurant with an excited grin. Tobin seems almost just a thrilled and Kelley slings an arm over Christen's shoulder. 

"Em drove us. Me and her are gonna take her car so you're stuck with Tobin so that she can give you directions." Christen doesn't miss the conspiratorial grin that Kelley gives her but she chooses to ignore it. 

"Kel, I know where the park is. I live here, remember?"

"Schematics." Kelley waves her hand and drags them to catch up with Tobin and Emily. 

"Well, I parked this way so Tobs, we're walking back that direction," Christen says and points towards the vague area of where her car is when they meet up with the group. Tobin nods easily as Emily and Kelley split off to their own car. 

"Lead the way," she says, just a little dorkily, but it makes Christen laugh as they walk. She's jittery as they make their way over to the car and Christen takes a deep breath before slipping into the driver's seat. 

The car ride is mostly filled with Tobin singing off-key to a Katy Perry song on the radio as Christen tries not to swerve the car off the side of the road as she laughs. The park they're going to is only a couple minutes away though, so soon they're stepping back out of the car and Christen's nerves return full force. 

"You sure you're up to playing?" Tobin asks gently, joining Christen at her side as they slowly make their way over to where Kelley and Emily are goofing around. 

"Yeah, I'm sure. It'll be fun." Christen forces a weak smile and then jogs her way over to the other two woman, leaving Tobin scrambling to catch up. 

It is, actually, a lot of fun. The first time Christen gets the ball, she stumbles a little on her footwork and she can tell Tobin's taking it easy on her until she slips the ball right through her legs as Kelley yells excitedly. 

"And you're a professional footballer?" Christen asks cockily after she shoots the ball between two trees — her and Kelley's goal — and grins when Tobin scoffs. 

"Oh, you asked for it, Press." When Tobin finally gets the ball back, Christen desperately trying to keep her away from their makeshift goal, she makes a point of nutmegging Christen as revenge and then doing the same to Kelley before confidently flicking it through their designated goal area. Christen laughs, a little breathless, as they line back up to kick it off. 

It's dusk by the time they stop playing and there's a familiar twinge in Christen's ankle as she sits in the grass, breathing heavily. "You've got quite a few tricks up your sleeve, Press," Tobin says, eyebrows raised like she's impressed, and Emily nods, taking a drink out of her water bottle. 

"Yeah, you're really good,"Emily agrees and then sends a smirk towards her girlfriend. "The only reason you didn't win is because of Kelley."

Christen laughs as Kelley throws the soccer ball at Emily and it hits her in the head. Tobin shakes her head in exasperation, a small grin slipping onto her face as she watches Christen laugh, pure joy on her face. 

"I guess I should probably make a point of playing more." A soft expression plays on Christen's face as she picks at the grass. "I've missed this."

"Well, feel free to hit us up anytime. I could always use the challenge," Tobin says and Emily nods in agreement. Kelley watches, excited at the prospect of her friends getting Christen back into soccer. 

"Well," Kelley says slowly, sitting up a little, "we should probably get going. I've still got to pack for my flight tomorrow."

Emily's face falls slightly at the mention of Kelley leaving and Christen winces sympathetically as they all stand. Kelley pulls Christen into a tight hug that nearly breaks her ribs but she returns it all the same, squeezing her before they let go. 

"Don't be a stranger, Kel," Christen says softly as Tobin and Emily start making their way over to Emily's car, giving the pair a moment to say goodbye. 

"Same goes to you, Pressi." Kelley nods her head towards the two women leaning against Emily's car. "You need some friends in this city and Tobin is more than willing to be that person for you."

Christen kicks at the ground with the toe of her sneakers, shrugging a little. "Yeah, we'll see."

"Chris, I'm serious. Even if you all you need is a friend, those two losers are the best ones around." Kelley gives a dopey smile, pulling Christen into one last hug. "See you soon."

"I better." Christen laughs, taking her own opportunity to make a Kelley blush. "Emily's good for you, Kel, so I better see you around here a lot more often."

"I know, you will." Kelley nods once and then smiles. "See you around, Chris."

"Yeah, see ya."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’all have been leaving the nicest comments on each chapter and it makes me so happy! That being said, I’m sorry I haven’t really been responding to them like I usually would, everything’s been a little chaotic lately (for obvious reasons) and the idea of responding kinda makes me anxious. Weird, I know, I’m working on it and I’ll try to more consistently answer y’all, especially if you have any questions. Once again, sorry! Anyways, thank you for reading!


	7. The One In Which Christen Thinks She Might Be Dying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The one in which Christen doesn’t have corona (I promise)

It's a week later that Christen gets sick. A week after she'd gone to the grocery store and placed a soccer ball in the cart among her vegetables and canned foods. A week after she'd started waking up an hour earlier to go for a run and go through a quick exercise before work. And a week full of her and Tobin texting back and forth daily. It's one week later when Christen has to call Tobin to cancel their lunch plans together — also their first time seeing each other in a week — and sneezes as she waits for her to pick up the phone. 

"Hey, Chris!" Tobin answers on the third ring, her voice cheery. "Excited to go to the best lunch spot in Portland?"

Christen laughs weakly but shakes her head as she answers. "About that..."

"What's wrong?" Tobin asks immediately as Christen sniffles. 

"I'm sick," Christen mumbles, "and I'm so sorry, but there's no way I'm going to be able to do anything but lay around my apartment hacking up a lung."

Tobin laughs at the visual but then softens her voice. "Hey, no problem. I'll just have to bring the fun to you."

"What? Tobin, no — I'll get you sick!"

"Chris, it'll be fine. I can't just leave you to suffer," Tobin argues, teasing slightly as well. 

"It's your funeral, I guess," Christen concedes, pausing to cough into her elbow. 

"Text me your address and I'll be over after practice."

"You better shower before you come over," Christen warns, crinkling her nose. 

"I will, Chris, don't worry." Tobin's laughter flows through the speaker and Christen can't help but grin. "Not like you'd be able to smell me anyway if all that sniffling is anything to go by."

"Oh hush." Christen starts to laugh but instead doubles over into a coughing fit, struggling to catch her breath. 

"Whatever, sickly. I'll see you soon, okay? Don't forget to send me your address."

"I'm sick, not dumb," Christen responds dryly as she finally stops coughing and Tobin laughs. 

"Bye Chris," Tobin singsongs and hangs up as Christen rolls her eyes. Still, she can't help the small smile that plays on her lips as she curls back into the couch and texts Tobin her address. She doesn't get a response — not like she was expecting one — so she flicks on the TV. It's on a channel she doesn't recognize that's playing soccer reruns so she leaves it and closes her eyes. 

It's not until a few hours later that Christen wakes up from her nap. Well, more like is woken up by loud knocking on her door. Groggily, Christen stands up and stumbles slightly towards her front door, coughing as she does so. It's Tobin who's behind the door and already Christen feels better when she grins at her, holding up a couple of grocery bags. "Hey! I brought some essentials."

"Do I even want to know what your idea of essentials is?" Christen steps aside and pulls her door open a little further. "Come in."

Ignoring her teasing question, Tobin walks into her apartment and looks around slowly as Christen closes the door. And, of course, like some kind of soccer magnet, the first thing Tobin notices is the ball sitting near Christen's entranceway. Her smile grows impossibly wider as she deftly flicks the ball up into the air and juggles it briefly with her feet. 

"You break it, you buy it," Christen warns in between sneezes and Tobin at least has the sense to look a little sheepish as she catches the ball with her hands. 

"Sorry." Tobin sets the ball down on the floor and then straightens back up, grinning at Christen as she walks further into the apartment. "Nice hair by the way."

Christen blushes and groans, running a hand through her wild curls. "You woke me up from my nap so this," Christen gestures to her messy hair, "is partially your fault."

"I don't think that's how that works but nice try." Tobin grins and the flops onto the couch Christen was just laying on, setting her bags down on the coffee table. 

"Sure, just makes yourself at home," Christen says flatly as she makes her way over to sit beside her and Tobin laughs. "So, are you going to tell me what all these essentials are?"

Christen reaches over to try and peer into the bags but Tobin beats her to it, drawing the groceries closer to herself and out of Christen's reach. "Patience. All will be revealed with time."

Christen sighs and brings her feet up onto the couch, curling up under her throw blanket as she sneezes. "Hurry up or I'll die of this cold before you can show me."

"Okay, Miss Drama Queen." Tobin grins and grabs one of the bags, pulling it into her lap and sticking her hand in to grab its contents out. "First, I've brought some precautionary movie DVDs because I wasn't sure if you had any streaming services and it's not a sick day if we don't watch at least three movies."

"I have Netflix but it's the thought that counts," Christen teases as Tobin sets the movie disks aside with a nod. 

"Well, just in case." Tobin pats the stack of movies and then digs through the bag some more. "I brought cards!"

"Why cards?" Christen asks, confused as to why Tobin seems so excited about a deck of playing cards. 

"So we can play card games, obviously."

"Oh, I thought we were going to make origami cranes out of them," Christen responds, rolling her eyes fondly. "What I meant was, why, exactly, are cards considered essential?"

"So I don't get bored." The 'duh' at the end of the statement goes unspoken but it's still etched into Tobin's facial expression. "We have to have some form of entertainment that you won't interrupt with your loud coughing."

"Right, why didn't I think of that?" Christen says sarcastically but Tobin just grins and continues to pull things out of the bag. She sets down the cards, then another movie, and then she pulls out a box of tissues. 

"I brought Kleenexes because you seem like the kind of person to not have any," Tobin says offhandedly as she sets the box down on the coffee table. 

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Christen asks, flabbergasted, but Tobin just shrugs and continues to rifle through the bag like she's deciding what to pull out next. 

"Well, did you already have some?"

"Well... no, but—"

"Exactly," Tobin says, gesturing with the cold medicine she has in her hand. "I bet you didn't have any medicine either."

"I mean, I'm sure I have some somewhere," Christen says, fully knowing that she hasn't bought cold medicine since she's moved out of her parents' house. 

"I'm sure you do. Here, take it." Tobin says, giving her a smug look and tossing the medicine to Christen before she pulls out a container. "I brought some soup from home that I keep frozen in case of a rainy day."

"You brought me homemade soup?" Christen asks incredulously as she pours the recommended amount into the cap. Tobin runs the back of her neck sheepishly. 

"Yeah?"

"Tobin, you're a literal angel," Christen deadpans, the most serious she's been since Tobin walked through the door. She takes the medicine like a shot as Tobin ducks her head shyly. 

"It's not that big of a deal." Tobin shrugs and Christen thinks she might just barely be able to see the hint of a blush forming on her cheeks. "Besides, once you're nursed back to help, I can go back to beating you 1v1 in soccer."

"I should've known you had ulterior motives." Christen shakes her head but can't hide the smile on her face as Tobin laughs. "Seriously, though, thank you."

"You haven't even seen the best part yet!" Tobin protests, not very subtly ignoring the thanks Christen gives her. She crumples up the now-empty first grocery bag and then grabs the other one. 

"Should I be worried?" Christen asks as Tobin drops the bag onto the couch like it weighs a hundred pounds. 

"Hey, I know what I'm doing! I'm an adult."

"That's debatable."

"Says the one who didn't have cold medicine or tissues." Tobin levels an unimpressed stare at Christen, who shrugs. "Moving on, I brought Gatorade!"

"That's the best part?" Christen asks, eyes crinkling because she's smiling so hard as Tobin lets out a long, dramatized sigh before she pulls out two bottles of Gatorade. 

"What did I say about patience? I'm saving the best for last!"

"What are you, five?" Christen asks and Tobin shoves her on the shoulder lightly. 

"Anyways," Tobin drawls, "I also got a box pomegranate and raspberry tea because I wasn't sure what'd you like and this seemed like the best option."

"Oh, thank you. My throat is so sore."

"I figured as much. I can make you some after I'm done unpacking if you'd like?"

"Have I mentioned that you're the best?"

"No, but that's good to hear." Tobin grins, setting the box of tea to the side. "I've also got honey-flavored cough drops because you sounded like an eighty-year-old smoker on the phone earlier."

"Tobs, this is too much. Is there any way I can pay you back?" Christen bites her bottom lip worriedly as she scans the items crowding her coffee table, the bag still holding at least one more item. 

"Nah, I just want you to get better," Tobin says easily, waving away Christen's worries. "But if you're still concerned about it, I would always love to reschedule the lunch we had planned for sometime soon."

"Deal." Christen grins, excited at the idea of spending more time with Tobin. "Now am ever going to get to see the best part of your shopping excursion?"

"I might have hyped it up a bit too much," Tobin says hesitantly, peering into the bag nervously. 

"Please, come on. I'm sure whatever it is, I'll love it."

"Okay, but there's two part to it." When Christen nods, Tobin continues. "First is this."

Tobin pulls out a stuffed animal that looks like an overly soft version of a pug. It's relatively small, but it's still the cutest thing Christen's ever seen — and, well, the uncertain smile on Tobin's face definitely doesn't make it any less adorable. "Tobs, what—"

"You mentioned your dogs and how much you missed them a while back so I brought you some company," Tobin grins goofily, still a little nervous as Christen stares at the stuffed animal. "Please don't get snot all over it."

"First of all, ew," Christen says as she reaches over and gently takes the toy from her. It's even softer then she imagined as she holds it close. "Second of all, this is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. Tobs, it's perfect!"

"Really? I wasn't sure because I didn't want to make you sad but it was just so cute—"

Christen cuts Tobin off by throwing her arms around her shoulders and pulling her into a tight hug. Surprised, Tobin hesitantly brings her arms up to hug her back but soon enough, Christen is pulling away with a huge smile on her face. "Thank you."

"Of course." Tobin secretly thinks that the way Christen is looking at her completely makes up for the fact that she might get sick after all of this. 

"It's so soft," Christen murmurs as she runs a hand over the plush toy and Tobin can't help but smile even wider. 

"Time for the second thing!" She sits up even straighter, Christen watching her intently. "I got you a strawberry banana smoothie."

Christen bursts out laughing as soon as she pulls out the bottled smoothie and Tobin grins proudly. Shaking her head, Christen says, "I can't believe you."

"I almost didn't buy it," Tobin says seriously, "I didn't want to face the judgment of the cashier."

Christen continues laughing until she starts coughing uncontrollably, her face bright red as she tries to control her breathing. Tobin shift over on the couch so that she can pat Christen's back as she continues to cough. "I think you're trying to kill me," Christen says in between fits of coughing and Tobin grins, continuing to alternate between rubbing and patting her on the back. 

When she finally stops cough, Tobin asks softly, "You good?"

Christen nods, sucking in a few deep breaths now that she can finally breathe again and levels a fake glare at Tobin. "I thought you were here to help me get better not try to choke me out."

"My bad." Tobin grins, rubbing up and down Christen's back one last time. "How about I go heat up the soup and make some tea while you find us something to watch?"

Christen agrees easily and she casually scrolls through the options on Netflix as Tobin bangs around in her kitchen. She occasionally calls out questions about where things are and how to use the coffee machine but she's surprisingly quiet as Christen looks for a movie. Tobin comes back eventually, holding a bowl and steaming glass mug with a soft smile. 

"Here you go," Tobin says gently, placing the mug on the coffee table and handing the bowl of soup to Christen. 

"Mmm, thank you," Christen murmurs and Tobin makes a move to sit back down but then stops, turning to Christen. 

"You don't happen to have a small trashcan anywhere, do you?" 

"Um, yeah actually, there's one under my bathroom sink." Tobin nods, goes to move, and then hesitates. 

"Where would that be, exactly?"

"Oh, duh, down the hall, last door on the left is my bedroom and right through there is my bathroom," Christen directs and Tobin mutters the direction to herself as she disappears down the hallway. It takes longer than what would be expected but eventually she comes back triumphantly holding the trashcan. 

"For all those tissues you'll be using," Tobin says as she places it on the floor next to Christen and nudges the Kleenex box closer to her. "And just in case you have to barf."

"Well, lets just hope your cooking isn't that bad." Christen cradles the bowl of soup in her hands, playing with the spoon as Tobin laughs. She then gestures excitedly to the TV, where she has the description of a movie pulled up. "What about this one?"

"Chris, this is a documentary." Tobin's eyes scan the words on the screen, unimpressed at how boring it sounds. 

"I know, I've been meaning to watch it but haven't had the time." At Tobin's uncertain look, Christen sticks out her bottom lip and softens her eyes. "Please?"

"Fine but I can't promise I won't fall asleep," Tobin warns, settling back into the couch with a sigh. Christen grins triumphantly and quickly presses play before Tobin can change her mind. 

Midway through the documentary, long after Christen has set her bowl to the side and has finished most of her tea, Tobin shifts and looks around, running her hands up and down her arms. "Do you have any throw blankets?"

"Just this one." Christen gestures to the blanket she's laying under and then lifts the edge of it invitingly, asking a question with her eyes. Tobin doesn't hesitate before crawling under the blanket, curling up next to Christen without a problem. Christen drops her head onto her shoulder, shifting so that they're both fully under the blanket and comfortable. The documentary continues to play but all Tobin can think about is the way Christen's breath is tickling her neck and how her hand is laying softly on her knee. And also how she's definitely going to get sick. 

Tobin's so out of focus that she doesn't even notice the credits rolling until Christen shifts away from her with a content sigh. "See, it wasn't that bad."

"I think I blacked out," Tobin deadpans and Christen rolls her eyes but laughs. There's a brief lull in conversation as Christen clicks out of the movie screen and Tobin brushes her hair out of her face but then Christen turns to her like she just remembered something. 

"Oh, by the way, how are your ears doing?" Christen asks, ducking her head slightly so that she can see Tobin's earrings. 

"They're fine. A little sore but nothing too bad." Tobin dutifully turns her head to let Christen examine her left ear and then her right. 

"And you've been cleaning them properly, right?" Christen asks, her breath just barely ghosting over Tobin's cheek as she puts a hand under her chin and guides her head upwards so that she can get a better angle. 

"Yes, Chris," Tobin says with an over-exaggerated sigh like she's talking to a nagging mother. 

"Sorry for caring," she teases and Tobin snorts. "Does your coach make you take them out for practice?"

"Yeah, just in case."

"Makes sense, he wouldn't want anybody to injure his star forward," Christen responds easily, brushing a stand of hair behind Tobin's ear so she can get a better look and she ignores the way her breath hitches. 

"Why, Christen, I didn't know you thought so highly of me!" Tobin says her voice pitched a little higher and Christen sniffles as she drops her hand from Tobin's face and leans back. 

"Whatever." Christen rolls her eyes, biting her lip to hide a small smile but Tobin grins when she sees it anyways. "Are you ready to move on to tattoos yet?”

"Not happening." Tobin grins as Christen pouts. "But I'll let you give me a fake one."

"You and Kelley are too similar," Christen sighs and looks around, grabbing the basket of markers she has sitting under the coffee table — you know, just in case inspiration strikes while she's watching reruns of Friends on TV. Tobin huffs our a laugh but doesn't say anything as Christen shakes the markers at her. "I hope you know what you just got yourself in to."

"Do your worst, sickie," Tobin says challengingly with a crooked grin and Christen eagerly pulls Tobin's right arm towards her. 

"You asked for it." Christen uncaps a black marker and then glances up. "Any requests?"

"You're asking the wrong person for ideas. I don't know anything about tattoos," Tobin says and Christen nods, biting her lip in thought. 

"I'll probably go with something simple, so we're not sitting here for hours. Maybe something soccer related?" Christen glances up to get Tobin's approval and, when she nods, she lowers the marker down onto her skin. 

Tobin finds it relaxing to watch Christen work, her tongue poking out between her teeth as she concentrates on the outline she's drawing. The peace, however, is eventually broken by Christen turning to the side and doubling over coughing. She turns back to continue drawing after a couple minutes and Tobin chuckles lowly. 

"It's a good thing you didn't go to work," Tobin comments as she watches Christen scrunch up her nose when she notices she made a mistake. 

"Yeah, well, I knew I probably would've ended up sneezing in a customer's face and then gotten fired," she says forlornly, leaning slightly closer to Tobin's arm as she sniffles. She starts fixing the mistake she made earlier, drawing over it until it's impossible to tell she messed up. 

"Same rules apply." Christen glances up as Tobin smiles wryly. "Sneeze in my face and I'm firing you."

"Got it." Christen goes back to drawing, still outlining everything in black and Tobin vaguely recognizes the outline of the crest the national team wears on their jerseys. 

"How's your piercing?" Tobin asks after a beat, turning the question from earlier back on her, and Christen huffs out a laugh. 

"Sore." Christen answers pointedly, repeating what Tobin had said, but she cracks a grin. "I've just started eating solids again."

"But now you're sick."

"But now I'm sick." Christen nods, crinkling her nose in annoyance. "So now I'm back to soup and strawberry banana smoothies."

Tobin laughs, taking great care not to shake her arm as Christen starts drawing fine lines up her forearm. The drawing is backwards from Tobin’s point of view but she can still see the outline of the team crest and the four stars. It’s interesting to watch how Christen shades everything in and the rate at which she works is kind of astounding. She’s precise but not hesitant and it doesn’t take more than thirty minutes before she has a general outline. 

“Having fun?” Christen asks when she catches Tobin watching her. 

“Are you?” She fires back and Christen grins, nodding quickly. 

“As much as work sucks sometimes, I really do enjoy it,” Christen says, a soft smile coming on to her face as she uncaps a red marker. 

“You’re good at it too.”

“Thank you,” Christen says sweetly and when she looks up, Tobin can see a faint blush on her cheeks. 

They sit in relative silence for a long time after that — barring the frequent coughing and sneezing — and eventually Christen has to get up to turn the lights on as the sun starts to set. “Sorry,” she says after sitting back down on the couch, “I know none of this is fun for you.”

“What? No, I love hanging out with you.”

“You love hanging out with me while I’m sick and force you to sit still for hours on end?” Christen raises her eyebrows but Tobin doesn’t budge. 

“Yep.” Tobin nods seriously. “There’s no where else I’d rather be.”

Christen seem unconvinced but she doesn’t say anything as she finishes filling in one of the few blank spaces left on Tobin’s arm. Then she caps the marker with a satisfied smile and lets go of her arm. “All done!”

Tobin raises her arm up and examines it despite the fact that everything is backwards and upside down from her perspective. She grins, tracing the number seventeen that Christen has drawn front and center on her forearm. “Chris, it’s amazing.”

“Here, hand me my phone and I’ll take a picture so you can actually see it,” Christen says, brushing off the compliment and Tobin complies easily. She quickly snaps a picture and then hands her phone over for Tobin to see. Smiling even wider, Tobin spends several moments examining the picture before handing her back the phone. 

“I love it,” Tobin says earnestly and Christen smiles shyly, a hint of pride shining through as she looks at the picture as well. 

“I kinda do as well.” Christen pauses and glances up at Tobin. “Do you mind if I post it on Instagram?”

“No, go ahead, the world needs to see your brilliance.” Christen snorts at Tobin’s gentle teasing and quickly uploads the picture, remembering to tag Tobin only after she mentions it. Tobin does her part, liking the photo and reposting it on her story with several heart-eye emojis that Christen pretends she doesn’t see. 

“So, another movie?” Christen suggests after they both set their phones down — Christen pointedly ignoring the winky emojis that Kelley leaves on her post — and Tobin nods eagerly. 

“Do you think you can handle popcorn or is that a no go?”

“I’m a little nauseas right not but you could always make some just in case.” Christen knows she’s not going to be able to eat it but she doesn’t want Tobin to feel bad about eating so she lets her go to the kitchen and pop a bag in the microwave. Normally, the smell would make her mouth water but Christen just feels like gagging now when Tobin comes back with a bowl. 

“I brought your smoothie from the fridge too,” Tobin says, offering the bottle out to Christen and she takes it gratefully. 

“I found a movie — not a documentary,” Christen says, nodding her head towards the Tv and Tobin grins. 

“Perfect!” Christen presses play as Tobin shimmies her way under the throw blanket with her. They resume the same position they’d been in earlier, with Christen resting her head on Tobin’s shoulder when she’s not taking a drink of her smoothie. 

It’s halfway through when Tobin hears quiet snores and she glances down at Christen to find her eyes closed and mouth hanging open, dead asleep. Tobin rolls her eyes and contemplates dragging her to bed but she decides on finishing out the movie. Besides, she kind of interested in all the action happening on screen. After the credits start rolling, Tobin shifts and gently shakes Christen's shoulder. When she finally groans and squints her eyes open, Tobin gives her an easy smile. "How about we get you to bed, yeah?"

Christen nods and looks around blearily, sitting up slowly and wobbling a little once she's fully up. Tobin puts a gentle hand on her shoulder as she stands up and Christen continues to look around, dazed. "What time is it?" Christen murmurs as she lets Tobin hold her upright. 

"I think it's close to midnight." Tobin helps steady Christen but she's still teetering dangerously to the left so she pulls her into her side. Clearly not having any idea what's going on, Christen slings an arm around Tobin's waist to keep herself from falling. 

"Oh." Christen looks at her feet, eyes tracing the barely visible floorboards. "It's late."

"Yep," Tobin responds easily, "and that's why we're going to bed."

"Okay." Christen nods, eyebrows furrowed as they start walking towards her bedroom. "Don't you—"

Christen stumbles, clutching her head with one hand and the other arm still securely around Tobin's waist. She nearly drags them both down but Tobin somehow manages to keep them on their feet, hauling Christen up with a hand on her arm. "Dizzy?"

"Yeah," Christen groans, closing her eyes tightly as a wave of nausea passes over her. 

"That's okay, we're almost to bed," Tobin says gently, waiting patiently for her to be ready to start walking again. "I'll come back and get the trashcan for you once you lay down."

"Thank you," Christen mumbles, yawning as they slowly start walking towards her bedroom. Christen's grip on Tobin's waist tightens every time the nausea hits again and Tobin knows to stop so she doesn’t end up puking all over the hallway floor. It takes a little while but they eventually get to the bedroom, Christen immediately stumbling her way into bed. Tobin lets her get ready for bed as she runs back to the living room and comes back with the trashcan, now partially filled with tissues. She sets it by the nightstand that Christen is laying near. 

“Goodnight, Chris,” Tobin whispers, assuming she’s already fallen asleep but then Christen’s hand shoots out and she catches Tobin by the wrist. 

"Stay. Please," Christen murmurs, her fingers wrapping loosely around Tobin's wrist and tugging on it weakly. "I'm freezing."

Tobin blushes but crawls into the bed anyways, pulling the covers up over both of them as Christen shivers. When Christen curls up into her side, Tobin secretly thinks that the possibility of getting sick is definitely worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I contemplated wether I should post this or not considering there’s a literal global pandemic happening but I ultimately decided I have no other plot ideas :) Anyways, thank you for reading!


	8. The One In Which Christen is Still Convinced She’s Dying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so BAD I’m sorry it will get better. Bear with me please there is an actual point to this story (also, please be nice I know this isn’t great I’m working on it)

It gets worse before it gets better. The first night Tobin stays, she wakes up to the sound of Christen puking in the bathroom at two in the morning. They spend the next hour together on the bathroom floor with Christen retching into the toilet bowl and Tobin rubbing her back and tying her hair up. They only get back into bed once Christen nearly dozes off on the floor and she stumbles her way through brushing her teeth before Tobin leads them both back to bed.

The next three days consist of Tobin running back and forth from practice, the grocery store, her house, and Christen's apartment. She spends the majority of her time with Christen, nursing her back to health while she's too deliriously sick to protest much.

The first day, Tobin is unsure of how she’s going to make this all work. With practice and an upcoming game coupled with the fact that Tobin doesn’t have any of her things at Christen’s, she feels like a mad woman that first morning. It works out surprisingly well, though, because the field is closer to Christen’s apartment than it is to her house so her commute is a little shorter — meaning that when she wakes up late, scrambling to get to practice, she actually makes it there on time. She ends up going to her house after, taking a quick shower and packing all of her necessities into a duffle bag before she’s heading back to Christen’s. 

Christen is still asleep when she gets back and it would be wise to let her rest so Tobin chills in the living room, watching a rerun of an old soccer game. When Christen finally stumbles her way out of the bedroom, all wild hair and bleary eyes, she immediately crawls onto the couch with Tobin and groans. 

“I feel like I just got run over by a bus,” Christen sighs, her voice even more nasally than it was the day before. 

“You look like it too,” Tobin says, glancing over to Christen’s pale face and trembling hands. 

“I can always count on you for an ego boost,” Christen says dryly, resting her head on the back of the couch. 

“Always, gorgeous,” Tobin drawls and when Christen raises her head back up to make eye contact with her, she looks away and wills the blush on her cheeks to leave. “Anyways, do you think you could handle some more soup?”

“I could always try.”

Christen throws up in the kitchen sink ten minutes after she eats a few spoonfuls of soup and she apologizes profusely as Tobin washes it out — thanking god for detachable faucets while she does so. Tobin waves away her concernes easily, trying to ignore the smell, and ushers her off to go lay down with the small trashcan nearby. After using a third of Christen’s dish soap and making a note to add it to the grocery list later, she pads back into the living room where Christen is curled up under a throw blanket shuddering pathetically. Tobin almost sighs at her refusal to lay in bed, secretly thinking that cleaning barf off the couch is a lot harder than cleaning it off sheets, but instead just nudges the trashcan closer to Christen on the coffee table and hands her a glass of ginger ale. Christen thanks her for it but only takes a few tentative sips before setting it down with a grimace. 

“What game is this?” Christen asks tiredly as Tobin sits down on the couch. Before she can even answer, Christen lays down entirely and rests her head in Tobin’s lap. Tobin doesn’t complain, instead opting to run her fingers through Christen’s curls soothingly as the other woman’s eyes drift close. She doesn’t even wait for an answer before she falls back asleep almost instantly and Tobin chuckles lowly, turning the TV volume down slightly without her left hand straying from its place in Christen’s hair. They spend most of their day like that, Christen occasionally waking up to Tobin coaxing some drink or another into her before she passes back out. That night, after Tobin helps Christen stumble to bed for the second time, Christen drags her into bed blearily without even saying anything. Tobin definitely doesn’t complain then. 

The next day is the worst. It starts at 1 in the morning when Christen doesn’t make it to the bathroom in time and throws up in the trashcan beside the bed. Resisting the urge to sigh heavily, Tobin helps Christen to the bathroom, ties her hair up, and leaves to clean out the mess she just made. It’s gross — so gross — but Tobin ties up the trash bag and hauls it down to the dumpster behind the apartment complex deliriously. If nobody’s around to see her wash her hands three times over and layer two trash bags into the trashcan, just in case, then who’s to say it really happened. 

By the time she actually gets back to the bedroom, setting the trashcan back in its original spot, Christen’s asleep against the bathroom wall. She carries her to bed, her back straining, as she doesn’t even bother to attempt to wake her up. Instead, she deposits her into a pile of blankets and curls up next to her tiredly. 

Tobin is exhausted at practice the next morning and all of her touches are off, enough so that Emily corners her about it during one of their water breaks as Tobin runs a hand through her hair in frustration. 

“Dude, what’s up with you? You look dead.” It’s not a lie, the bags under Tobin’s eyes very prominent as she collapses onto the ground tiredly. 

“Christen caught a nasty bug so I’m staying with her until she gets better. Wasn’t a great night last night,” Tobin says blearily, pouring a little water on herself in hopes of waking up a bit. 

“You’re staying with her?”

“Um, yeah?” Tobin glances up, confused by Emily’s raised eyebrows. “Why?”

“I thought you barely knew her.”

“We’re friends.” Tobin shrugs easily, feeling a little shy. 

“Right. Friends.” Emily doesn’t seem convinced as she walks away mumbling something about Kelley with just confuses Tobin even more. She chooses to ignore it, really too drained to dwell on whatever weird things come out of Emily’s mouth. 

Christen is laying on the hardwood floor of the living room when she gets back and Tobin briefly wonders if she’s dead before she picks her head up off the floorboards. Even from the doorway, Tobin can see how flushed Christen is. 

“It’s so hot,” Christen mumbles before laying her head back down and Tobin has to resist a laugh at how pitiful she sounds. Shaking her head, Tobin turns on the overhead fan and grabs an icepack from Christen’s freezer. 

“How about we get off the floor?” Tobin suggests in amusement as she nudges Christen with her foot. She rolls over onto her back, squinting up at Tobin. 

“I’m so dizzy, I don’t think I can stand.”

“Right,” Tobin says, grabbing one of Christen’s hands and dragging her to her feet before quickly getting her settled back onto the couch. “Here’s an icepack, put it on the back of your neck or your forehead.”

Christen lets out a long sigh of relief as she puts the cold pack behind her neck, leaning on it heavily as Tobin busies herself with grabbing a Gatorade from the fridge. “You should probably drink this, your electrolytes must be low.”

Christen ends up drinking the entire thing but counteracts that by throwing up in the bathroom toilet later on. Tobin isn’t really sure what to do so she flushes it, grabs some ginger ale, and then forces Christen into bed for the rest of the night.

The third day is so much better. Christen eats the last of the soup without getting nauseous and her cough has gotten less prominent. She even manages to take a quick shower as Tobin tidies up the living room a little, throwing out all the cough drop rappers and tissues. 

They crack open the box of card for the first time, with Tobin beating Christen in every round until she throws down her hand, pouting while hiding a small smile. “This isn’t fair, you’re taking advantage of the sick!”

“Whatever you say, Chris.” Christen huffs but doesn’t say anything as they go back to watching the soccer highlights on Tv. Tobin doesn’t miss the sad look in Christen’s eyes as she tracks the ball on the field and she briefly wonders how much Christen really misses soccer even though she won’t admit to it. 

Tobin doesn’t spend the night. Christen ushers her out of her apartment insisting she’s done enough and also somehow managing to slip a sincere apology in their somewhere.

“Chris, I really don’t mind. Besides, now you owe me your nursing skills when I get sick,” Tobin says, leaning against the doorframe as Christen bites her lip guiltily. “I had fun hanging out with you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure me throwing up was the highlight of your week.”

“Highlight of my year, actually,” Tobin corrects with a grin and Christen laughs, shoving her shoulder. 

“Bye Tobs.” Tobin grins all the way to her car but also feels a pang of sadness as she pulls out of the parking lot. She brushes it off though, not really understanding why she’s so disappointed. 

Tobin gets sick the next day, three days before she has to travel to New Jersey for a game against Sky Blue. It doesn’t hit her nearly as bad as it did to Christen, at most she gets an annoying headache and partially loses her voice. Still, Christen feels bad enough that she shows up at Tobin’s house with cough drops, a guilty smile, and takeout that neither one of them should really be eating. They have fun, having a rematch on the card games that Christen now has a leg up in because Tobin can barely get her eyes to focus on the cards. Tobin still beats her fifty percent of the time. Christen stays the night but is gone the next morning before Tobin is even awake, leaving her a note that causes butterflies to flutter Tobin’s stomach, the innocently drawn heart at the end catching her eye. 

She’s better by game day — thank god — and plays a full ninety against Sky Blue, scoring a goal and receiving several texts from Christen as she watches the game from home. She smiles but then frowns briefly, realizing she probably won’t be seeing Christen as often now that she doesn’t need her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Online schooling is kicking my butt so updates might start coming a lot slower but I really am trying to improve how interesting they are. Sorry this was such a filler chapter. Thanks for sticking with me this far :)


	9. The One In Which Tobin Thinks She Might Die (but for different reasons)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh young love almost makes you forget the world is falling apart. Just kidding, I hope all of you wonderful people are doing well and are healthy and safe!

They end up rescheduling their lunch plans for a week later and Tobin even manages to convince Christen to play soccer with her before they eat. It doesn't actually take much, Christen being excited to get practice in with another human being rather than a wall that she works on passing against and a tree she practices dribbling around.

Christen is jittery all day at work, tapping her foot impatiently whenever there's not a customer to distract her. Her coworker takes to making her reorganize the entire jewelry display whenever she groans in boredom which leaves Christen channeling her energy into more productive things like drawing soccer tattoos and attempting to not run her tongue along her new piercing. It's a very trying shift — mostly because who in their right mind decides to walk into a body modification parlor on a Thursday afternoon. The answer, is not many people. Christen does get to do a really cool minimalistic dragon tattoo on one of her regulars that she ends up posting to her Instagram because it's just that good. But that's about it. By the time Christen is hurrying out of the shop, her coworker looks a little relieved to get rid of all the hyperactivity. Christen almost feels bad. Almost.

Christen is starting to regret letting Tobin pick her up about thirty minutes into her pacing around her apartment excitedly — and maybe a little nervously — as she waits for her. Tobin is ten minutes late but Christen can't even bring herself to care as she steps out of her apartment, Tobin grinning at her side. 

"I figured we'd play first and then go eat so we don't have a repeat of last week," Tobin says as they walk to her car and Christen rolls her eyes. 

"If I never puke again it'll be too soon." Christen groans and Tobin laughs, unlocking her car so that they both can climb in. 

"I think if I never see you puke again it'll be too soon," Tobin repeats good-naturedly as she buckles her seatbelt and turns the ignition on. 

"Thank you again, by the way," Christen says after a beat while Tobin pulls them out of the parking lot. 

"No need to thank me, I know I'm an angel," Tobin teases, eyes briefly flicking over to Christen. "Seriously though, it was no big deal."

"Yeah, spending four days with me while I tried to give you the plague was 'no big deal.'" Christen uses air quotes as she repeats what Tobin said, scoffing softly as Tobin chuckles. 

"Like I said before, highlight of my year." Tobin grins as Christen huffs out a laugh and pokes her in the arm. "Whoa, hands off the driver!"

Christen pokes her twice more, once on the bicep and then, daringly, on the cheek. "Am I distracting you?"

"Yes, actually. You're gonna get us killed," Tobin says with as much of a straight face as she can manage.

"Fine," Christen grumbles, crossing her arms in an over-exaggerated pout before she smirks. "Since when are you the responsible one in this relationship?"

Tobin's heart rate increases by a tenfold at the word relationship — she's a little proud she manages to not swerve off the road — and Christen notices that she's flustered, blushing at her own word choice. "Um," Tobin pause but then shakes her head, putting on a convincing grin, "I am a responsible adult, thank you very much."

"That's laughable," Christen says, relieved to breeze past whatever awkward moment that just happened. "You went to practice while you were sick."

"So? That's my job."

"So, you got three of your teammates sick," Christen says, laughing under her breath as Tobin snorts. 

"That was a fluke," Tobin protests, slowly pulling into a parking space near the park. 

"It was a fluke that they caught the exact same bug that we had? I'm not convinced." Christen unbuckles her seatbelt and swings open her door in sync with Tobin. As they climb out, Tobin shakes her head. 

"Whatever. You have no proof that it was my fault," Tobin says, childishly sticking her tongue out as she pops open the trunk of her car and retrieves a soccer ball before closing it again. 

"Hmm, sure Tobs," Christen says, walking over to Tobin and easily stealing the ball out of her grip. She sends a wink — more like a blink — over her shoulder as she jogs away to the field with the ball tucked under her arm. 

"Hey!" Tobin protests and starts chasing after her, though it becomes glaringly obvious that Christen is much quicker than her. 

"Nice of you to join me, slowpoke," Christen says, breathing a little heavy as Tobin eventually catches up to where she's juggling the ball with her feet. 

"I'm not slow, you're just impossibly fast," Tobin pants, kicking the ball out of the air as Christen tries to bounce it off of her foot. It rolls a couple feet away and Christen makes a noise of protest, shoving Tobin on the shoulder lightly. "That's a yellow card!"

"Bite me," Christen shoots back, running over and collecting the ball with her feet easily. 

"Oh, it's on, Press!" Tobin is in Christen's space in an instant, kicking at her feet and ankles to get the ball out of her control.

"Get away from me you heathen," Christen screeches dramatically and then swings her leg, sending the ball flying straight into Tobin's legs so that it ricochetes away with a loud thwack. 

"That's not even fair," Tobin complains, rubbing absentmindedly at the spot on her thigh where the ball hit as Christen runs off after it with a laugh. 

"It was legal though." Christen shrugs and kicks the ball up once into the air before trapping it with her chest to get it back onto the ground. 

"I'm sure there's a rule somewhere about trying to injure an opponent," Tobin mumbles, slowly advancing on Christen in an attempt to get the ball. 

"I wasn't trying to injure you."

"Sure seems like it." Tobin swipes the ball away from Christen, who huffs and rolls her eyes when she precedes to do a fancy combination of footwork that leaves her a little dizzy. 

"You're just dramatic," Christen grits out as she rushes at her and slide tackles the ball away. 

"That was studs up," Tobin complains as she watches the ball roll several yards away. Christen laughs as she goes over to grab the ball, dribbling it back quickly. 

"We're not even wearing cleats."

"That's besides the point, your tackle was reckless," Tobin says, the grin she's wearing effectively taking the bite out of her accusation as her eyes trace the movement of the ball between Christen's feet. 

"That or I'm not meant to be a defender," Christen says but then sighs as the ball is stolen from her again and Tobin starts to advance up the field despite the fact that they haven't assigned goals. 

"Defending isn't for all of us."

"As if you're any better at it than I am."

"I've got the ball, don't I?" Tobin grins and tries to step past Christen but instead ends up losing the ball to a sweeping kick. 

"Not anymore." She cackles as Tobin chases after her to no avail, Christen easily covering at least 50 meteres of distance before slipping the ball through a space between two random trees. She watches the ball roll through her target and then raises her arms to the sky, laughing. "Goal!"

"Technically, we never decided where the goals were," Tobin points out, tackling Christen into an enthusiastic hug anyways as if they're celebrating on the same team. Christen stumbles back a little at the force of Tobin's body hitting her but throws her arms around her neck quickly when she gains enough footing. 

"Whatever, that was a great goal," Christen mumbles almost directly into Tobin's ear before they pull away, both flushed — from the running or the hug, neither are sure. 

"It was world class. You left all the defenders in your dust." Tobin grins, wide and blinding as Christen giggles and shakes her head. 

"Okay smart-ass, since you lost you have to go grab the ball for kickoff," Christen says, nodding her head to wear the ball lays several meteres away. Tobin groans and shoves Christen on the shoulder but runs off to get it anyways. Christen calls after her, "I thought shoving was a yellow card!"

"Well, now we're even," Tobin yells over her shoulder as she collects the ball with her feet and hurries back over to where Christen has drifted further up the field. She stops the ball with her feet a couple feet away from Christen and then glances up at her. "Ready?"

Christen nods and Tobin kicks the ball, dribbling backwards as Christen watches. She does some kind of weird trick that has the ball up in the air and then flying straight over Christen's head. As Tobin shoves past her before she can run after the ball, she chases at her heels. "No fair," Christen grumbles as Tobin kicks the ball hard through her own set of trees, making Christen chase after it as she does her own form of goal celebration. 

"All's fair in love and war," Tobin says mock-sagely, rubbing her chin like she's deep in thought and Christen throws her head back and laughs. 

"Okay, John Lyly, back to kick off."

"John Lyly?" Tobin asks as she hurries to catch up with Christen, who's heading back to the center of the field. 

"The person who said the quote, Tobs." Christen huffs out a laugh as Tobin's mouth falls open in surprise. "You need to brush up on your history."

"I don't know what kind of history classes you went to but that dude was definitely never mentioned in any of mine."

"Maybe you weren't paying attention," Christen says as she attempts to dribble past Tobin but ends up losing possession of the ball with a disappointed groan. 

"I'll have you know I was a straight A student back in the day," Tobin says as she starts advancing on her goal with Christen kicking at her feet to get the ball back. 

"Back in the day," Christen mocks, as Tobin manages to slip the ball through her legs and into her makeshift goal, "as if you're eighty years old."

Tobin shoves Christen again, laughing as she says, "Whatever, go get the ball. It's two to one."

"Don't get cocky, Heath! I'll beat you yet," Christen warms as she runs after the ball, a little out of breath as they reset. 

Christen does not, in fact, beat Tobin but she ends up only a couple points behind before they decide to call it a day and head for lunch. Well, more like Christen knocks Tobin hard enough that she has to call it quits. Everything was going fine until Tobin gets the ball, earning it off of a steal that has Christen huffing in annoyance. Christen is immediately chasing after her, managing to redirect Tobin so that she is blocking her from getting to goal. She runs straight at the ball, tangling their legs together as she attempts to kick it out from underneath Tobin. What actually ends up happening though, is that they kick at each others feet until they both lose balance, Tobin falling flat on her back into the grass. Christen, to her utter embarrassment, lands directly on top of her. It's not cute.

"Ow," Tobin whines, wincing as Christen's elbow hits her directly in the ribs. A little disoriented, it takes Christen a couple seconds before she rolls off into the grass besides her, breathing heavily. 

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Christen says worriedly, biting her lip as she sits up and Tobin rubs at the spot on her ribs that she definitely just bruised. 

"You're good," Tobin groans out, sitting up eventually. "Pro tip, don't try to wrestle your opponents to the ground. You'll get carded."

"I really am sorry," Christen says, blowing at a strand of hair tickling her face. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Nah, you just knocked the wind out of me. No big deal, I've had worse," Tobin shrugs but Christen still looks a little guilty. They pause briefly but then she lifts her hand up and brings it to Tobin's cheek, rubbing at the skin there gently. Tobin, a little shocked, has to repress a shudder as Christen runs the pad of her thumb across her cheekbone. 

"You've got some dirt," Christen trails off, lowering her eyes shyly as she pulls back her hand after wiping away the dirt on her cheek. 

"Thanks," Tobin says, almost whispering as Christen blushes before visibly collecting herself. She looks up, red still coloring her cheeks, and grins. 

"I think that's enough soccer for one day," Christen says, standing up and offering out a hand to Tobin, who accepts it gladly and pulls herself up. "How about some of that mind-blowing lunch you promised me."

"I never said it was mind-blowing," Tobin grumbles, walking off the stiffness she feels as Christen picks up the ball and tucks it under her arm. "It's just my favorite food place in Portland."

"Must be something special then," Christen grins, meeting Tobin's eyes briefly before flicking her gaze away. 

Tobin, a little thrown off by the awkward tension between them, runs past Christen with a smirk and a quick "Race ya to the car," before she's sprinting away with Christen on her heels. Christen wins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank all of y’all for reading! And, for those of you who are commenting, you guys are the sweetest people and your comments really help me get past my anxiety of posting each chapter. I appreciate each and every single one of you! Thanks for reading and stay safe!


	10. The One In Which Christen Is Unsure But Makes a Decision Anyways

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have we only just got to the main point of this story... maybe. But we’re getting there y’all

The lunch is amazing but Christen secretly thinks the company she's with helps quite a bit with that. As soon as they walk in, it becomes obvious that Tobin is a regular — one of the hostess's eyes lighting up in recognition at a friendly face and Tobin greets her by name without even looking at the name tag. It's odd to Christen, she's not too fond of hanging around familiar places, but she smiles and goes along with it anyways. 

They're seated across from each other at a small table in one of the far corners, their legs occasionally knocking. Christen looks around at the small restaurant after the waitress comes by to take their drink orders, aware of Tobin's gaze on her face like she's nervous to see her reaction. She turns to Tobin with a smile as she picks up her menu. "I can see why you like this place." Christen smirks, raising her eyebrows. "It has a very 'you' kind of vibe."

Tobin eyes Christen warily, not even bothering to pick up the menu as if she already knows what she's getting, and asks, "What's that suppose to mean?"

"It's not a bad thing," Christen soothes, shaking her head with a small smile. "This place is just very relaxed, not underwhelming but not, like, in-your-face either."

"That sounds like a bad thing," Tobin says, ducking her head and lowering her eyes. Christen nudges Tobin's calf with her foot, making her glance up. 

"It's not, I swear. I like it, I like you." Christen immediately blushes at her phrasing, wanting to sink so far into her chair that she completely disappears. 

"You like me, huh?" Tobin grins, confidence regained as Christen flounders, looking anywhere but directly at her. 

"I mean, yeah, you're, uh, a great... friend," Christen stutters out, face red and hot. She taps her fingers on the table anxiously as Tobin raises a single eyebrow at her. 

"Chris," Tobin says softly, "I was just messing with you."

"Right, of course." Christen can't help but think Tobin looks a little disappointed at her reaction but she doesn't know why. She doesn't get time to dwell on it though, when the waitress comes over with their two glasses of water and asking for their orders. Tobin orders her lunch with practiced ease whereas Christen stumbles through asking for a chicken and avocado sandwich, fumbling over her answer when the waitress asks what side she wants. 

As soon as the waitress leaves, Tobin grins at Christen. "You're cute, you know."

"I, uh, what? Thank you," Christen says, completely thrown off by the last five minutes and beyond embarrassed.

"Like, you come off as so badass with your tattoos and piercings but you're really just a softie," Tobin says, laughing as Christen kicks her under the table. 

"I am not a softie," Christen says quickly, pretending to be offended as Tobin laughs. 

"Sure, Chris, whatever you say."

"Says the one who only has their lobes pierced," Christen points out, stabbing her fork at Tobin even though there's really no reason for her to be holding it in the first place besides being able to fidget with it. 

"You've got me there." Tobin nods, grinning as Christen rolls her eyes. It's quiet for a beat before she says, "Soccer was really fun today."

"Yeah, I enjoyed it. Thanks for putting up with my mediocre skills," Christen teases and Tobin chuckles lowly, shaking her head. 

"I don't think that's necessarily what I'd call mediocre," Tobin says, taking a sip of water. "You were doing amazing out there today."

"Well, I've been practicing a little bit." Christen shrugs like its no big deal but Tobin instantly perks up. 

"Thinking about getting back into it?" 

"I don't know, most of the lower level leagues around here are filled with sweaty dude-bros," Christen says, scrunching up her nose at the thought. 

"Well," Tobin drawls, "the NWSL isn't filled with sweaty dude-bros." Tobin eyes her for a reaction and Christen guffaws, almost choking on the sip of water that she just took. 

"I can't join a profession league," Christen says with wide eyes as Tobin furrows her eyebrows. 

"Why not?" Tobin challenges, leaning forward a little as if she's genuinely curious. Christen can't tell if she's serious or not. 

"Because I'm not good enough? Or a professional soccer player? Or because the season is nearly over already? Because I already have a job?" Christen throws out all of the answers but Tobin just shrugs them all away. 

"Well, if you could, would you want to play professionally?"

"I— I don't know... maybe? But it's not even possible so I don't know why you're suggesting it," Christen says adamantly, nervously fiddling with her hair. 

"You said you missed soccer right?"

"Well, yeah, of course but—"

"So train your ass off — because you're already damn-near good enough — and then go to open tryouts in a few month. I'll even help you train." It surprises Christen how fired up Tobin is about this, her eyes fully trained on her as she waits for an answer. Christen flounders, momentarily stunned. 

"How do you know I would even want to? I just told you maybe, that's it." 

"Chris, I'm not doing this to uncover old wounds or whatever, I'm serious. I saw you out there today and before when we played with Kelley and Sonnett. Your face completely lit up when you were playing."

"You don't know me," Christen mumbles, arms crossed defensively.

"Don't I?" Tobin asks and Christen blushes, arms falling back to her sides again. 

"I don't know, Tobs. It doesn't seem possible," Christen sighs, running a hand through her curls. 

"Chris, you're good. Really good. I had trouble keeping up with you several times today." Tobin pauses as the waitress comes over with their plates, mumbling her thanks as she sets them down and leaves. "It's possible, trust me."

"What if I don't make it, then what?"

"Then you go back to work and put it behind you. And maybe you tryout the next year and maybe you don't but you won't know unless you try," Tobin says vehemently, cutting the chicken wrap she got into half as Christen hesitates. 

"Can I think on it?" Christen asks quietly, picking at her sandwich nervously as Tobin looks at her gently. 

"Of course, I didn't mean to pressure you or anything." Tobin pauses, stares at Christen for a moment, and then sighs. "You're really talented, Chris. I think you could make it but I'm not going to push it if you don't want to, okay?"

"Just give me a little time to think about it, yeah?"

"Yeah," Tobin nods and then grins like the whole conversation is forgotten. "I see you've graduated to sandwiches. Does that mean you piercing is finally healed?"

"Almost, but not quite. It's still a little tender, especially after I eat but we're slowly getting there." Christen takes a bite out of her sandwich as if to prove her point and then nods at Tobin. "How are yours? Haven't caught an infection yet?"

"Ye of little faith," Tobin teases, rolling her eyes as she brushes her hair to the side so Christen can see one of her ears and then the other. "They're doing great. Though I keep getting my hair tangled around the jewelry."

"Not much I can do for that," Christen says, "though you'll get use to it eventually. But be careful when messing with your hair in case you end up tugging on the piercing too."

"Already learned that the hard way." Tobin winces and Christen nods understandingly. 

"I guess it would have been a good idea to warn you beforehand." Christen laughs as Tobin scowls, taking a bite of her chicken wrap. 

"I'm regretting letting you pierce my ears more and more everyday."

"Rude," Christen mutters but can't help the grin that breaks out onto her face. "Too late to go back now."

"Hmm, how disappointing," Tobin says through a mouthful of food and Christen throws a napkin at her. "Any new tattoos in the works? That one you posted today was dope."

"For myself? Not really but I have maybe been thinking about getting one behind my left ear since I've already got one on the right."

"You do?" Tobin asks excitedly, setting down her food. "Can I see?"

"Umm, yeah." Christen sets down her sandwich as well, holding her hair to one side and turning in her chair so that Tobin can see behind her right ear. 

"Oh, that's beautiful," Tobin says softly, a question already forming on the tip of her tongue as Christen braces for it, "does it mean something or do you just really like sunflowers?"

Christen smiles sadly and runs her finger over where she knows the flower is at. "My mom's favorite flower was sunflowers. She used to plant them in the front yard every spring when I was a kid and I always thought they were so beautiful." Christen sighs wistfully, her thoughts back on her childhood home. "I got the tattoo after she passed away in the beginning of this year."

"Oh, Chris, I'm sorry. It was rude of me to ask."

"No, no." Christen waves off her apology easily, a small smile on her face as she turns back in her chair and lets her hair fall back down. "I wouldn't have told you if I didn't want to. Besides, sometimes it's nice to talk about her."

"Well, I'm here to listen if you ever want to tell me about her," Tobin says gently, knowing this is neither the time nor the place by the look on Christen's face. "Did you design the tattoo?"

"I wanted to but it turns out I'm actually really bad at drawing sunflowers." Christen laughs, shaking her head. "I have another one on my ribs, though it's got other plants surrounding it and it doesn't have a stem or anything like the one behind my ear does."

"Damn, that sounds cool." Tobin takes a bite of her food and swallows it before opening her mouth again. "The one you're thinking about getting, is it also going to be a sunflower?"

"No, I was actually thinking about getting three little butterflies for me and my two sisters. But, I don't know, I'll probably have to save up for a while."

"I better see a picture as soon as you get it," Tobin warns jokingly and Christen giggles. 

"What, you wouldn't come with me and hold my hand through the pain?"

"Sorry, Chris, you're on your own for that." Christen kicks Tobin's foot and she jumps in her seat a little. "Hey! I'm sure you're pretty use to it at this point, I'd be of no comfort to you. Besides, I'd probably pass out."

"Right, I forgot you were a wimp." Christen nods understandingly and this time it's Tobin's turn to kick her under the table. They both laugh, hushing their giggles like schoolgirls when the waitress comes over to collect their plates. She leaves with the promise of bringing the check and Tobin turns back to Christen with a grin. 

"I can't believe you think I'm a wimp," Tobin says, putting her hand on her chest like she's offended. Christen can't help but roll her eyes. 

"Must I remind you that you needed the stuffed bear when I pierced your ears," Christen teases gently and Tobin groans, burying her face in her hands. 

"That was so embarrassing, I can't believe those two idiots gave it to me," Tobin says after lifting her head back up, referring to Kelley and Emily's excitement when they handed her the teddy bear. 

"You're the one that kept it in your lap," Christen reminds her and Tobin just shakes her head, blushing slightly. "I thought it was cute."

"Ugh, kill me," Tobin says right as the waitress comes over with the check. Christen swipes it up easily and pulls out her wallet, as Tobin protests. "What, Chris, you can't—"

"I thought we agreed this was me paying you back for taking care of me?" Christen asks, eyebrows raised challengingly as Tobin weakly tries to change her mind. 

"You took care of me too and you brought me takeout. I thought we were even."

"Now we are," Christen says simply, handing her credit card over to the waitress when she comes back over. 

"No, now I owe you!"

"Nope, my treat Tobs. Don't worry about it." Christen pauses, briefly thinking about how much this could almost be a date but she shoves the thoughts away quickly. "Besides, I owed you after knocking you over in the park."

"That did hurt," Tobin concedes, unconsciously rubbing at the spot on her ribs where Christen had elbowed her. 

"Exactly, and it's too late now," Christen says when the waitress comes back with her credit card. They both thank her and stand up, Christen dropping a couple of bills onto the table as a tip and then walking out. They leave the restaurant with Tobin waving quickly to the hostess she had known at the beginning and Christen smiling politely. 

"This was really fun," Tobin says as they climb into her car and Christen nods. "Especially the soccer part."

"Tobin," Christen groans, "I said I'll think about it."

"I know, I know," Tobin says, starting to pull out of the parking lot. "I just hope you'll really consider it."

"I will if you stop bugging me about it," Christen says, smirking as Tobin sighs but immediately drops it. "Speaking of, when's your next game?"

"We leave tomorrow, actually, for a game against Seattle."

"You excited?"

"Obviously," Tobin says and then goes into a — semi-confusing — rant about Reign that Christen attempts to understand, occasionally interjecting questions when she has absolutely no idea what Tobin is talking about. For the most part, though, she's content to listen to her talk animately about her upcoming opponents. Tobin's midway through an in-depth explanation of Seattle's backline when she pulls up to Christen's apartment, falling silent when she parks. "Sorry, I kind of got carried away with all the soccer talk."

"It's what you're passionate about." Christen shrugs easily, unbuckling her seatbelt and then shifting to face Tobin. "Besides, it's fun when you're worked up. You get all huffy and confused."

"I don't know how I'm suppose to interpret that," Tobin says with a small chuckle, rubbing the back of her neck. 

"As a compliment," Christen tells her, leaning in to hug Tobin across the center console. "Besides, it's pretty cute."

Christen pulls away as Tobin flushes red and she kisses her on the cheek with a small smirk before opening the door of her car. She gets out with one last wave to Tobin, who's mouth is hanging slightly agape, and then heads up to her apartment with a small smile on her face. 

As she unlocks the door, Christen lets the smile drop from her face as the tiredness seeps into her bones. It's been an eventful day, with the "lunch" really ending up more as an early dinner. When she finally gets the door open and goes inside, Christen drops her purse onto the coffee table, glancing around her apartment with a heavy sigh. The soccer ball sitting near her front door catches her eye and she stares at it, Tobin's words from earlier echoing in her mind. She can feel her resolve crumbling easily, the thought of finally stepping back out onto the soccer pitch overriding all the doubts she has. With a huff and an eye roll, Christen fishes her phone out from her pocket and opens her messages to Tobin despite the fact that they were literally just together. She sends one message before tossing it back onto the couch. 

[Christen]: When do we start training?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These last two chapters have been very dialogue heavy and I don’t know if that’s better or worse than whatever happened a couple chapters ago. Who knows? Certainly not me :) Thanks for reading and stay safe y’all!


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